UC-NRLF 


527    033 


SIX  LECTURES  ON 
ASTRONOMY. 


BY 


PROF.  RICHARD  A./PROCTOR 


Delivered  in  Steinway  Hall,  New  York  City 


Reported  expressly  for  The  Truth  Seeker. 


NEW  YOKE: 
THE  TRUTH  SEEKER  COMPANY, 

28  LAFAYETTE  PLACE, 


FIRST    LECTURE. 


THE    GEOWTH  OF  WORLDS. 


From  the  time  when  men  first  began  to  think  at  all,  they 
began  to  form  ideas  about  that  which  they  found  around 
them;  about  the  origin  of  the  world  as  they  knew  it,  and  we 
find  that  at  different  times  they  formed  different  ideas. 
And  the  time  came  when  they  evolved  different  idea?  as  to 
when  all  things  have  been  brought  about.  We  find  some  c* 
them  full  of  poetry;  full  of  pathos  ;  certain  beautiful  sim- 
plicity not  childish,  but  child-like  simplicity  in  the  accour  ^ 
given  in  some  of  the  explanations. 

There  is  one  relation  more  universal  accepted,  which 
implies  that  Uie  earth  is  a  circular,  flat  region;  they  recog- 
nized the  heavens  as  like  a  tent  spread  over  it.  They  first 
supposed  that  in  the  beginning  darkness  rested  on  the  face 
C*  the  waters,  and  all  was  confusion.  At  last  came  the  time 
when  God  said:  "Let  there  be  light — and  there  was  light." 
And  then  gradual  changes  took  place,  by  which  the  water 
was  separated  from  the  earth,  and  a  separation  was  made 
between  the  earth  and  the  heaven,  by  which  the  firmament 
like  a  crystal,  separated  the  water  above  the  earth,  from  the 
water  below.  They  did  not  know  how  rains  were  formed; 
how  the  vapors  arose  in  the  atmosphere  and  then  formed 
clouds.  They  were  not  acquainted  with  the  way  in  which 
it  took  place — those  chemical  changes  or  molecular  changes 
were  not  known  to  them.  They  supposed  that  rain  came 
from  the  heaven — from  beyond  the  crystalline  which  they 
called  the  firmament. 


M754978 


4  THE  GROWTH  OF  WORLDS. 

Then  vegetation  came  upon  the  earth.  Then  came  the 
time  when  heavenly  lights  were  formed;  two  great  orbs,  the 
sun  and  the  moon,  and  besides  those,  the  multitudes  of 
stars.  J  am  not  concerned  here  to  explain  whether  this  ac- 
count, which  is  familiar  to  all  of  us,  agrees  with  the  sci- 
entific facts  or  not,  or  whether  it  is  a  different  inter- 
pretation; let  it  suffice  to  say,  that  for  many  thousand  years 
it  was  an  accepted  account.  Whether  the  writers  really 
knew  anything  about  science,  certain  it  is  they  were  not 
acquainted  with  actual  facts  as  science  reveals  them.  I  pre- 
sent it  without  dogmatizing — without  saying  it  is  consistent 
or  not  with  other  things — that  has  nothing  to  do  with  sci- 
ence. 

For  thousands  of  years  it  has  been  an  accepted  account. 
Gradually  science  made  its  researches,  and  men  saw  that 
precisely  as  everything  is  developed,  just  in  the  same  way  as 
the  plant  is  developed  from  the  seed  and  the  tree  from  the 
plant,  so  the  solar  system,  so  the  earth  was  developed;  so  the 
stars,  of  which  the  system  is  but  an  atom,  were  developed. 
So  they  could  go  step  by  step  without  any  hope  that  they 
ever  could  reach  the  true  beginning.  Methods  were  so  ar- 
ranged that  there  is  a  sequency  of  mind  throughout  eternity 
of  space  and  of  time.  Science  inquired  whether  this  infin- 
ity of  evolution,  the  continual  changes  taking  place,  is  con- 
sistent or  not  with  infinite  purpose,  with  infinite  personal  ex- 
istence, through  whom,  or  with  whom,  all  things  are.  Sci- 
ence has  nothing  to  say  on  that  point.  Science  can  not  deny 
the  possibility.  Infinite  as  the  mystery  can  be,  there  is  a 
working  of  infinite  wisdom,  of  infinite  beneficence.  All 
science  cafc  say,  is:  "that  is  unknown,  impalpable."  Sci- 
ence has  to  deal  with  other  invisible  ideas  ol  f  pace  and  time, 
m  which  all  this  is  taking  place;  and  admitting  this  infinity, 
it  cannot  reject  infinity  of  purpose  of  personal  will,  which 
carries  out  its  scheme  notwithstanding  there  is  infiinitude  of 
evolution.  Science  has  no  more  right  to  rt  ject  them,  than 
to  reject  infinitude  of  space  and  of  time,  or  the  infinitude  of 
force  which  results  from  the  infinitude  of  matter. 

We  have  the  power  of  gravitation,  whicn  as  a  part  of  the 
distance  that  separates  one  portion  of  matter  from  another, 
presents  to  us  infinitude  of  energy.  Take  the  infinitude  of 


THE  GROWTH   OF   WORLDS. 

space  to  be  occupied  by  infinite  matter,  and  jou  hare 
itude  of  material  power;  there  you  see  affinities  which  you 
cannot  understand.  Science  is  bound  to  accept  them,  and 
camiot  reject,  though  they  are  wonderful,  the  infinitude 
which  every  man  who  studies  feels,  the  infinitude  of  purpose 
manifested  to  us  like  the  continual  fruitions  of  uniform  law. 
Let  us  start  with  full  faith  in  the  sense  in  which  religious 
men  use  it,  that  by  no  means  in  studying  the  acts  of  nature, 
can  we  find  anything  contradictory  to  the  word  of  God. 
If  we  honestly  seek  for  truth,  it  is  not  likely  to  deceive  us 
by  letting  the  facts  of  nature  lead  us  astray;  let  us  be  sure 
they  can  not  teach  us  anything  but  the  law  which  is  work- 
ing in  and  through  all  things. 

In  the  history  of  our  earth,  tracing  as  far  back  as  we  can 
go,  the  first  state  of  things  we  can  recognize  is  the  presence 
of  infinite  quantities  of  nebulous  matter,  glowing  with  a  cer- 
tain faint  light  throughout  the  space.  My  friend,  Prof. 
*  *  *  *  in  Boston,  has  compared  these  nebulous  masses  to 
clouds  in  the  ether,  which  occupy  a  space  bearing  the  same 
relation  to  the  ether,  as  clonds  in  the  atmosphere  bear  to  the 
other  systems  of  worlds  which  appear  to  have  their  being  in 
the  infinitude  of  space. 

We  will  have  the  room  darkened  now,  in  order  that  the 
views  I  have  to  show  you  might  be  properly  seen. 

[The  lecture  was  profusely  illustrated  with  spectroscopic 
views.l 

The  first  scene  will  be  a  view  representing  part  of  the  neb- 
ulous mass  spread  across  the  infinity,  and  showing  how  the 
stars  are  so  connected  with  it,  that  it  leads  us  to  believe  that 
those  stars  are  worlds;  that  there  are  many  centres  like  our 
own.  Nor  are  you  to  imagine  that  the  scene  thrown  upon 
the  screen  is  the  mere  region  where  the  nebulae  appear  in 
shreds  and  masses;  that  portion  of  space  is  such,  that  any 
system  like  our  own  might  be  thought  to  be  encompassed  in 
it,  millions  of  millions  of  times.  The  distances  are  so  great, 
that  our  solar  system  would  appear  as  a  point ;  and  when 
you  see  those  large  spaces  of  nebulas,  you  must  infer  that 
every  part  of  the  nebulae  may  give  origin  to  masses  larger 
than  our  solar  system.  You  will  perceive  the  peculiarity  of 


ft  THE  GROWTH  OF  WORLDS. 

shade,  the  difference   indicative   that  they  are  capable  o< 
assuming  different  forms. 

I  will  now  describe  the  other  appearances.  You  wili 
hare  the  picture  of  the  great  nebulae  in  Argo.  You  have 
the  focus  before  you,  and  you  see  that  every  one  of  the  stars 
is  represented  by  a  point  far  too  large  in  relation  to  what  it 
is  in  space.  If  you  imagine  them  increased  in  Neptune,  so 
as  to  be  thirty  times  as  great  as  the  sun,  you  will  have  a  faint 
idea  of  them.  It  has  been  found  that  more  than  90,000,000 
of  miles  separate  us  from  the  sun,  and  great  as  is  this  dis- 
tance, it  is  but  the  twentieth  part  of  our  distance  from  Nep- 
tune. 

There  you  have  a  series  of  stars  and  that  great  dark 
space.  You  may  compare  it  to  the  belt  of  Orion  that  is 
now  to  be  presented.  These  nebular  masses  are  capable  of 
change  ;  they  are  like  clouds  before  a  summer  rain.  If  one 
wanted  to  represent  clearly  those  stars,  they  should  be  rep- 
resented by  points.  The  distance  of  these  great  nebulous 
stars  is  almost  beyond  comprehension  ;  they  are  all  growing 
solar  systems,  compared  to  which  our  sun  is  but  a  tiny  place. 

Here  you  have  two  forms  of  the  same  nebular  region ; 
they  differ  not  only  from  each  other,  but  from  all  other 
forms.  These  two  forms  are  taken  with  one  and  the  same 
telescope,  and  the  changes  taking  place  in  those  nebulae, 
show  that  we  have  to  deal  with  mighty  forces. 

Another  picture  will  show  the  region  to  which  this  be- 
longs—it is  the  ship  of  Argo,  and  the  left  part  of  it  is  the 
portion  to  which  it  belongs. 

The  milky  way  is  shown  here,  and  to  give  you  its  impor- 
:ance,  Sir  John  Herschel  tells  us  that  this  part  of  the  milky 
vay  is  wonderful  by  the  number  of  stars  it  contains  ;  it  is 
opening  to  us  the  secrets  in  showing  the  laboratory  of  Na- 
ture, where  she  is  still  engaged  in  building  a  system  of  stars. 

Now,  we  will  have  the  Orion  representing  the  fanciful 
Hunter ;  in  order  that  you  may  recognize  the  part  of  the 
heavens  where  the  mixed  stars  are  seen.  There  are  three 
stars  in  the  belt  of  Orion,  and  one  that  represents  the  Hun- 
ter. There  you  have  the  figure  of  the  giant  Hunter  and 
three  stars,  and  below  the  stars  the  belt,  which  I  want  you 
to  recognize  ;  it  is  composed  of  stars  and  nebulae,  and  if  you 


GROWTH  OF  WOBLDS.  7 

look  through  a  large  telescope,  it  seenis  as  though  a  comet 
was  coming  into  them.  You  will  find  that  the  nebulous 
part  forms  like  the  mouth  of  an  oyster. 

When  you  take  a  telescope  of  sufficient  power,  you  see  it 
goes  from  the  upper  to  the  lower  part.  They  are  much 
greater  by  comparison.  If  the  moon  was  above  the  horizon 
and  you  could  make  a  comparison,  you  would  think  they 
were  about  the  moon's  diameter  ;  but  you  are  surprised  to 
find  that  the  distance  between  them  is  far  greater  than 
the  moon's  diameter,  and  a  point  of  space  would  require 
many  moons  as  large  as  ours. 

Here  is  a  nebular  space  that  many  moons  would  be  re- 
quired to  cover  ;  it  would  be  sufficient  to  form  a  solar  sys- 
tem. Sir  William  Herschel  was  ready  to  conclude  that  this 
particular  nebulas,  the  nebulae  Orion  consists  of  a  mass  of 
glowing  gases,  seen  gradually  to  resolve  into  distinct  points 
of  light.  It  was  this  nebulous  mass,  that  was  seen  through 
the  telescope  of  Lord  Rosse  and  others  ;  also  through  the 
Harvard  telescope — which  was  equal  to  the  Rosse  tele- 
scope— and  it  was  found  that  it  did  not  consist  of  glow- 
ing gases,  but  of  millions  of  small  stars  which  had  but  a  dim 
light.  It  was  fonnd  to  be  a  mistake  when  the  spectroscope 
was  turned  upon  them. 

Here  you  see  the  spectroscope  has  three  bright  lines  in  the 
center  of  the  glowing  solid  or  liquid  ;  but  instead  of  that,  in 
the  spectrum  of  the  gaseous  matter,  you  see  gray  matter,  con- 
sisting of  glowing  gases.  There  is  one  line  here,  if  you  com- 
pare it  with  the  spectrum  given  above,  you  see  that  left- 
hand  line  of  the  spectrum  corresponds  to  that  line 'of  H.;  the 
right-hand  line  with  the  line  of  N.  Every  line  of  the  nebulas 
has  not  been  identified.  We  have  here  a  line  of  hydrogen, 
one  of  nitrogen,  while  we  see  yet  lines  we  are  unable  to  ex- 
plain. By  the  spectrum  of  the  nebulae  we  are  led  to  think  that 
they  contain  more  elementary  gases  than  hydrogen  and  ni- 
trogen ;  that  those  are  not  elements  ;  they  are  elements  to  us, 
but  the  world  is  going  down  towards  the  simplicity  of  matter 
as  we  go  towards  the  beginning  of  matter  ;  and  as  we  advance 
step  by  step  in  the  infinity  of  matter,  we  find  our  elements 
are,  in  reality,  compounds.  In  these  nebulous  masses,  if 
these  clouds  that  fill  the  space,  we  have  a  step  back  toward 


8  THE   GROWTH   OP  WORLDS. 

simplicity,  and  yet  we  feel  that  we  are  in  the  presence  on 
infinite  mystery.  We  can  go  through  the  links  of  time, 
through  the  links  of  space,  of  constitution,  of  matter,  toward 
simplicity  on  the  one  hand,  and  complexity  on  the  other.  We 
feel  that  we  see  but  few  links  on  both  sides.  We  cannot 
conceive  the  nature  of  space,  the  nature  of  time,  and  the 
few  forms  of  matter  with  which  we  are  acquainted  ;  we  look 
at  them  as  though  they  were  central  links,  but  when  there 
are  so  many  links  there  are  no  links — we  have  everywhere 
infinite  mystery. 

Sir  William  Herschel  sought  to  form  a  theory  of  the  Uni- 
verse. You  see  this  nebulous  matter  gathering  itself  towards 
the  center.  Neither  Sir  William,  nor  Sir  John  flerschel, 
ever  saw  the  gradual  change  of  those  nebulous  masses. 
They  require  many  millions  of  years  to  be  completed.  We 
may  undergo  changes  which  we  will  recognize,  but  the 
changes  of  the  Solar  System  require  infinite  ages.  Though 
only  hundreds  of  those  changing  nebulas  were  known  be- 
fore his  time,  Sir  William  Herschel  brought  hosts  of  thou- 
sands of  them  before  the  British  astronomers.  He  found 
various  stages  of  growth,  and  was  able  to  recognize  that  they 
were  all  growing  toward  the  center  ;  as  they  grew,  the  center 
became  more  and  more  marked,  till  at  last,  nothing  besides 
the  center  was  left.  Here  you  have  various  orders  of  nebu- 
la; another  picture  will  show  you  still  further  changes 
toward  the  formation  of  a  larger  mass. 

Here  you  see  nebulous  gases  gathering  towards  the  center. 
In  the  middle  you  see  a  large  space  ;  you  see  how  some  of 
the  nebulous  masses  have  separated  themselves  from  the 
great  mass  and  show  a  tendency  towards  the  formation  of 
separate  systems.  Another  picture  will  show  you  a  still 
further  change  of  these  masses,  still  more  gathering  them- 
selves, one  star  becoming  the  center.  I  would  remind  you 
that  those  planetary  systems  don't  resemble  our  planetary 
system  ;  there  is  infinitude  of  variety,  and  we  cannot  expect 
that  the  various  systems  are  alike,  any  more  than  we  should 
have  to  expect  that  Venus  is  like  Mars,  or  Mars  like  Jupiter. 
So  among  the  various  systems  ;  if  ever  the  time  comes  when 
we  will  recognize  the  various  areas  of  solar  systems  existing 
throu<;hout  space,  I  venture  the  prediction  that  we  will  fine 


OBOWTM   OF  WORLDS.  • 

in  them  a  variety  surpassing  our  solar  system.  .  This  pic- 
ture will  pass  on ;  another  will  lead  ns  to  another  system. 

Here  is  the  central  part  of  our  solar  system.  You  must 
know  the  relation  of  the  earth  to  the  system  ;  here  you  have 
the  earth,  Venus,  Mars,  and  outside  the  asteroids.  Of  these 
remarkable  bodies,  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  are  discover- 
ed, all  going  the  same  way  and  in  orbits  separate  from  each 
other  by  some  thousands  of  miles.  They  may,  doubtless,  be 
counted  by  millions.  There  is  a  picture  which  shows  the 
relation  which  the  earth  bears  to  the  whole  solar  system,  in 
order  that  you  may  know  how  small  our  earth's  diameter  is, 
compared  with  the  system  which  it  belongs  to,  that  system 
being  a  mere  point,  compared  to  the  other  systems  in  space. 
Here  you  have  the  central  series  ol  orbits,  and  here  the 
lower  shady  part,  representing  the  asteroid  belts. 

Another  picture  comes  on  the  screen,  where  you  find  the 
central  part  with  the  asteroid  region  ;  in  the  middle  you  see 
a  shady  ring,  it  represents  the  ring  nebulae.  This  is  a  pic- 
ture drawn  by  me  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannic  a.  There 
you  have  the  powers  of  our  solar  system  ;  first  Neptune, 
then  Uranus,  then  Saturn,  then  Jupiter,  then  the  asteroids. 
Those  powers  represent  the  scale  of  the  powers  of  the  plan- 
ets. You  must  notice  the  peculiar  uniformity  of  the  system, 
a  certain  oneness,  a  uniformity  of  progression.  Besides 
that,  all  of  these  planets  travel  on  the  same  level.  Our  solar 
system  may  be  spoken  of  as  a  flat  system,  and  if  you  take 
the  asteroids,  and  remember  they  all  go  the  same  way 
around  that  fleld»  unless  the  Almighty  wished  to  deceive  his 
creatures  by  presenting  purposes  which  were  meaningless. 
We  may  take  those  uniform  motions  as  having  a  meaning, 
and  ask  what  they  mean,  just  as  we  might  ask  what  is  the 
meaning  of  the  growth  of  a  tree,  or  of  an  animal.  We  can 
proceed,  trusting  in  the  truth  of  the  Almighty  God  in  his 
unwillingness  to  deceive  his  creatures. 

According  to  the  theory  of  Laplace,  we  find  that  the  solar 
system  must  have  came  into  being  from  some  great  system, 
proceeding  from  nebulous  matter.  That  as  it  rotated  and 
contracted,  ring  after  ring  broke  off,  and  one  planet  after  an- 
other was  thrown  ofi  and  proceeded  towards  the  centre  of 
the  sun,  until  the  solar  system  was  formed,  and  then  they 


10  THE  GROWTH  OP  WORLDS 

rotated  on  their  axes  and  being  subject  to  the  same  laws, 
they  were  contracting,  and  threw  off  ring  after  ring,  and 
that  was  the  formation  of  the  satellite  systems.  When  I 
came  to  study  the  various  relations  presented  by  the  system, 
and  when  I  came  to  deal  with  modern  researches,  I  found 
there  must  be  a  mistake.  He  did  not  explain  the  peculiar 
relations  of  the  masses  of  the  planets.  All  our  boo^s  dwell 
too  little  on  the  difference  of  size.  Mark  Venus,  the  earth 
with  the  moon,  then  stars,  then  the  few  small  bodies  repre- 
senting the  asteroids,  then  Saturn  with  his  satellites,  and 
then  the  brother  giants  Uranus  and  Neptune.  You  will 
find  there  is  a  peculiar  arrangement.  By  Laplace  gradual- 
ly increasing  motions  towards  the  Central  Sun,  why  don't 
we  find  a  uniform  progression,  or  at  any  rate  some  law  that 
would  correspond  to  the  law  of  formation?  We  can  answer 
the  question  by  finding  a  new  point  in  the  relation  so  pre- 
sented, and  instead  of  the  solar  system  haying  accumulation 
throughout  the  system,  which  is  inconceivable,  because  we 
cannot  believe  a  system  of  such  immense  space  should  ever 
have  gathered  into  planets,  we  would  substitute  to  it  the 
Central  Sun.  We  would  be  sure,  even  unacquainted  with 
absolute  facts,  that  the  continual  process  of  gathering  mat- 
ter, is  to  be  the  real  force  in  the  formation  of  the  solar  sys- 
tem. Compared  with  that,  the  contraction  is  relatively  in- 
significant, although  it  had  its  object  in  the  formation. 
When  the  sun  gathers  in  matter  from  without,  the  velocity 
of  the  matter  increases  as  it  approaches  the  sun  ;  calculated 
by  all  mathematicians,  the  velocity  would  be  infinite  at  the 
sun's  surface.  It  would  amount  in  Jupiter  to  twelve  miles 
per  second,  and  at  the  distance  where  Jupiter  lies,  it  would 
prevent  such  matter  from  going  towards  the  Central  Sun 
by  catching  it.  Close  by  the  sun  the  velocity  would  be  so 
great,  that  the  aggregation  would  have  but  a  small  chance, 
whereas  Jupiter  would  have  a  much  better  chance  to  capture 
it.  Once  we  recognize  that,  we  find  there  is  something  at 
the  outset  that  would  help  to  explain  the  size  of  those 
planets.  The  larger  their  masses,  the  greater  their  power 
for  capture.  So  it  is  explained  that  Saturn  and  Jupiter  con- 
tain nine-twentieths  of  the  matter  belonging  to  the  system. 
Prof.  Benjamin  Pierce  has  said  that  nine-tenths  of  the  solar 


?HE  GROWTH  OF  WORLDS.  11 

system  is  gathered  in  the  two  planets.  It  corresponds  to  the 
processes  really  taking  place,  if  we  look  upon  persons 
growing. 

It  would  be  familiar  to  many  in  this  audience,  but  I  will 
venture  to  reproduce  it.  If  there  were  creatures  living  one 
day  and  seeing  various  trees  around  them,  and  if  they  tried 
to  conceive  how  those  trees  came  into  being,  they  might 
think  it  was  produced  by  contraction  from  a  great  vegetable 
mass.  But  if  records  were  kept,  and  they  found  there  were 
no  cases  of  such  trees  contracting,  they  would  reject  the 
theory  that  trees  are  formed  by  contraction  of  the  masses, 
but  they  would  recognize  that  trees  are  growing,  though  the 
life  *f  a  tree  would  be  as  infinite  to  those  creatures  as  the 
planet  is  to  us.  So  that  we  will  be  right  in  taking  growth 
as  the  process  by  which  worlds  and  systems  came  into  being. 
A  picture  will  illustrate  this  growth  taking  place. 

Here  is  the  downfall  of  the  meteoric  shower.  During  the 
shower  there  was  not  a  space  that  was  not  occupied  by  it, 
and  while  they  took  place  the  earth  was  growing  relatively 
fast.  Every  one  of  those  meteors  falling  upon  the  earth 
came  down  in  the  form  of  vapor,  and  the  vapor  sinks  down 
and  becomes  a  portion  of  the  earth's  mass.  When  we  take 
into  account  the  meteors  represented  now,  we  find  that  in 
the  course  of  a  year  four  hundred  millions  of  mteorice 
processes  fall  upon  the  earth  and  form  a  part  of  it.  The 
computations  we  could  make,  would  make  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  tons.  Thus  it  is  the  earth  grows,  and  though 
the  increase  is  infinitely  small  compared  with  the  actual 
masses,  yet  through  the  countless  years  the  earth  has  passed, 
no  small  power  has  been  added  to  its  growth.  A  large  part 
of  the  earth  must  have  accrued  in  this  particular  way 
through  the  enormous  periods  we  have  to  deal  with. 

There  is  one  stage  of  the  earth's  history,  the  cooling  pro- 
cess, from  the  time  the  earth  was  beginning  to  assume  a 
solid  form  to  the  present  time,  which  embraces  hundreds  of 
millions  of  years,  and  if  even  now  every  year  there  fall 
400,000,000  of  these  meteoric  masses,  how  enormous  must 
their  number  have  been  at  those  remote  periods,  when  those 
meteoric  showers  were  not  exhausted ;  those  of  our  days  are 
but  mere  shadows  of  the  past.  All  the  planets  must  have 


1$  THE  GROWTH  OP  WORLDS. 

been  growing  at  the  rate  comparable  with  the  masses.  They 
are  growing  as  a  child  grows,  year  by  year;  and  you  see  a 
man  does  not  grow,  yet  the  process  is  taking  place.  It  may 
be  traced  back  as  the  growth  explaining  the  development  of 
man,  so  our  growth  explains  the  growth  of  the  solar 
system. 

There  is  a  picture  of  a  meteoric  mass  which  fell  down  in 
South  America,  and  weighed  fifteen  tons.  Masses  of  great 
meteors  have  fallen  upon  our  planet  in  the  tracks  of  the 
larger  comets,  and  we  continually  see  a  relation  between 
meteoric  showers  and  comets. 

Here  is  the  shower,  called  the  November  meteor  shower  : 
you  see  here  the  sun,  the  earth's  orbit,  Mars,  Jupiter,  Saturn, 
and  Uranus  :  then  that  other  part  of  the  November  shower, 
or  the  comet  to  which  it  belongs.  During  a  number  of  years 
this  shower  occurred  repeatedly.  Millions  of  miles  were  oc- 
cupied by  these  traveling  masses.  This  meteoric  system  is 
only  one,  out  of  so  many.  That  one  passing  toward  the 
right  is  the  August  shower,  which  occurred  on  the  twelfth  of 
August,  when  the  tears  of  Saint  Lawrence  are  supposed  to 
fall.  - 

There  you  see  the  way  in  which  the  comets  gather  around 
the  sun,  they  seem  only  as  fine  flakes  of  snow,  floating  in 
space,  yet  they  are  thousands  of  miles  in  diameter.  Our 
earth  encounters  more  than  a  hundred  of  them,  some  being 
infinitely  greater.  See  the  way  in  which  theythicken  in  ap- 
proaching the  sun.  There  are  only  a  few  known  comets,  and 
Kepler  says,  these  don't  bear  a  greater  relation  to  the  un- 
known ones,  than  the  fishes  caught  to  those  uncaught. 
There  the  earth  is  passing  through  Biela's  comet,  which 
broke  into  pieces  in  1836,  the  earth  passing  on  the  outskirts. 
The  comet  was  seen  like  a  small  spot  of  light.  On  all  the 
way  of  the  passage  of  this  comet,  the  sky  was  yellowish,  and 
it  contained  a  great  number  of  meteors  ;  you  see  the  enor- 
mous masses  floating  in  it.  There  you  have  the  comet  of 
1861 :  I  saw  it  one  morning  in  Ireland,  extending  from  the 
horizon  its  enormous  tail.  A  telescope  was  required  to  bring 
it  into  view.  It  gave  rise  to  innumerable  showers. 

Here  is  the  comet  of  Donati,  with  a  view  of  the  Palace  in 
Paris,  which  gives  you  an  idea  of  the  apparent  size  of  the 


THE  GROWTH  OF  "WORLDS.  15 

comet.  As  I  have  said,  some  of  those  telescopic  comets 
can  cause  our  earth  to  increase  in  bulk.  Here  is  Cog- 
gia's  comet.  This  picture  shows  the  enormous  size 
of  these  comets.  This  is  the  comet  of  1873.  You  see 
here  how  this  comet  changed  in  shape  under  the  action  of 
the  sun.  You  see  the  want  of  symmetry  in  structure,  as  it 
passed  away  from  the  Northern  heavens,  and  appeared  in  the 
South:  the  head  of  the  comet  was  dividing  itself  into  two  dis- 
tinct arms,  as  if  it  had  been  continually  under  the  action  of 
the  sun's  forces.  You  could  see  the  formation  of  it  quite 
distinctly.  This  is  an  evidence  of  the  enormous  quantity 
still  remaining  of  the  matter  out  of  which  our  system  has 
been  formed,  corresponding  to  my  theory  rather  than  to  that 
of  Laplace.  There  you  have  a  ring  of  nebulae,  but  if  you 
study  that  nebulae,  you  find  that  the  ring  is  only  a  part  of  the 
conception;  there  are  various  aggregations  there,  which 
prove  the  theory  that  the  different  aggregations  were  formed 
by  the  gathering  of  matter,  and  by  the  capturing  of  the  va- 
rious aggregations  of  so  much  matter  as  they  could  catch. 
These  are  all  formed  from  the  nebulae.  You  see  the  central 
mass,  the  streams  all  gathering  toward  it,  and  you  have  the 
clearest  possible  evidence  that  the  aggregates  catch  as  much 
matter  as  they  can.  You  see  here  the  flattened  masses  of 
nebulas  :  they  are  flattened  into  a  shape  corresponding  to 
that  which  is  exhibited  in  the  solar  system. 

This  view  on  the  left  tends  to  illustrate  the  reasoning  I 
brought  before  you  in  which  you  saw  the  way  how  various 
aggregations  formed  That  lower  one  shows  the  formation 
of  a  system  of  greater  complexity,  as  if  there  were  many  ag- 
gregations around  the  central  mass.  The  different  streams 
will  correspond  to  those  existing  in  our  solar  system.  We 
have  come  to  an  outlet  which  was  a  growth  barely  percept- 
ible. As  we  consider  the  early  history  of  the  world,  we  may 
have  an  idea  of  the  formation  of  a  central  sun,  and  the  sys- 
tem it  represents. 

This  picture  represents  the  nebulous  origin  of  our  earth, 
how  it  rotates  around  the  sun  and  around  her  axis,  and  in 
rotating  casts  off  the  moon,  and  the  moon  rotating  in  the 
same  direction,  always  turns  but  one  side  to  the  earth. 

There  we  have  a  picture  representing  the  past  history  of 


14  THE  GROWTH  OF  WOBLDfi. 

the  earth  as  a  sun — the  Tycho  Bralie  view.  It  represents  the 
ideas  of  Tycho  Brahe  about  the  surface  of  the  sun  covered 
with  flames. 

Here  we  have  a  view  of  the  sun  with  spots  upon  its  sur- 
face, showing  the  days  in  the  past  stages  of  our  sun  when 
the  aggregative  process  was  taking  place.  Those  pictures 
are  not  intended  to  be  pictures  of  the  sun,  but  of  our  past 
esrth,  at  the  time  when  the  moon's  inhabitants  speculates 
upon  the  probability  that  our  earth  was  inhabitable. 

Now  we  have  a  picture  of  the  sun  presented  by  Sechi,  a 
stream  of  light  approaching  toward  the  centre  of  the  sun, 
one  of  the  processes  to  which  our  sun  is  subjected.  Here  you 
have  a  picture  presenting  colored  prominences,  red  eruptions 
on  the  surface  of  the  sun.  They  represent  cloudy  masses  ex- 
tending from  the  sun's  surface.  Some  of  them  are  thou- 
sands of  miles  in  diameter  ;  they  are  swept  away,  and  rush 
in  fragments  into  space.  The  rate  at  which  they  were  ex- 
pelled was  such  that  the  velocity  of  a  cannon  ball  is  abso- 
lute rest  compared  to  that.  Our  earth  must  have  been  dis- 
playing a  great  activity  of  forces  in  that  stage  of  its  exist- 
ence. Here  is  a  picture  of  the  solar  corona.  "We  are  pass- 
ing from  the  sun's  immediate  neighborhood  to  the  nebulous 
origin  our  sun  doubtless  had.  It  is  a  view  of  the  corona, 
painted  by  the  corona  itself.  These  nebulous  points  repre- 
sent the  past  history  of  our  solar  system. 

In  1878,  there  will  be  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  visible  in  this 
country.  It  is  the  last  eclipse  in  this  century,  visible  in 
America.  It  will  be  a  fair  opportunity  to  see  the  zodiacal  light 
as  presented  on  this  picture,  where  you  have  an  eclipse  of  the 
the  sun  by  the  moon.  Next  time  of  the  eclipse,  instead  of 
powerful  telescopes,  those  who  observe  it  should  simply  use 
their  eyes,  and  from  the  side  of  the  corona,  try  to  find  the  ex- 
tension of  light.  By  going  to  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
they  would  have  a  chance  to  answer  the  most  problematic 
question  now  alive  in  the  clubs  of  astronomers,  as  to  whether 
the  zodiacal  light  belongs  to  the  sun.  As  it  can  be  seen  dur- 
ing the  eclipse,  any  one  might  make  his  name  famous  in  as- 
tronomy. The  more  powerful  the  telescope,  the  less  you  see 
the  corona,  and  you  will  do  better  by  simply  trusting^your 
eyesight. 


THE   GROWTH  OF  WOBLDA  15 

Now  we  come  to  the  last  stage  of  our  earth's  growth  In  the 
condition  of  the  gigantic  Jupiter,  surrounded  by  clouds. 
The  water  was  boiling  on  its  surface,  the  whole  air  was  red- 
hot.  What  we  have  seen  of  the  solar  system  would  lead  us 
to  expect  it  to  be  so.  We  can  understand  the  earth's  pass 
age  from  the  nebulous  stage  to  the  sun-like  stage,  then  to  the 
stage  of  Jupiter.  Here  you  have  an  enlarged  view  of  Jupi 
ter,  though  it  belongs  to  another  lecture,  and  here  is  Saturn 
with  his  surface  enclosed  in  cloudy  belts. 

Here  we  have  our  earth  at  the  stage  in  which  the  crust  has 
been  formed  on  its  surface.  Notwithstanding  that  it  was 
told  by  Laplace  that  the  solid  matter  would  be  likely  to  sink 
into  the  fluid  below,  yet  we  must  recognize  the  fact  that  the 
volcanic  lava  forms  a  crust  in  the  same  way.  We  might  ex- 
pect that  the  crust,  closing  upon  the  central  nucleus,  would 
be  burst,  being  too  close  on  the  central  body.  There  you 
have  two  views  ,  one  on  the  left  representing  the  movement 
under  a  glass  globe  filled  with  water,  aud  hermetically 
closed.  The  water  finding  its  way  through  the  glass  would 
burst  it,  You  see  here  cracKs  and  radii  in  different  direc 
tions. 

Then  we  come  to  the  stage  where  the  whole  frame  of  the 
earth  would  be  drenched  by  dense  clouds.  These  clouds 
would  be  in  an  atmosphere  of  immense  pressure,  saturated 
with  muriatic  acid,  sulphuric  acid,  chloric  and  carbonic 
acids,  which  together  with  boiling  water,  would  descend  in  the 
form  of  intensely  hot  rain.  After  having  been  subjected  to 
these  forces,  the  earth  would  come  to  a  condition  where  we 
could  look  for  spontaneous  generation.  Then  comes  the  next 
stage  when  the  nucleus  acts  against  the  crust  and  bursts  it. 
You  nave  the  red  strokes  indicative  of  the  way  in  which  the 
crust  would  crack.  Farther  on  you  have  an  illustration  of 
what  would  happen  when  the  nucleus  withdrew  from  the 
crust  ;  the  centre  contracting  itself,  the  surface  corrugates. 
It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  American  ladies  have  beau- 
tiful hands,  but  where  could  you  find  a  hand  that  would  equal 
in  beauty  the  one  presented  on  this  picture?  Look  at  the 
back  of  the  hand.  What  other  hand  would  present  those 
majestic  mountain  ranges  intersected  by  deep  valleys? 
They  are  occasioned  by  the  contraction  of  the  nucleus.  It 


10  THE  GROWTH  OF  WORLDS. 

illustrates  the  formation  of  the  mountain  ranges  after  the 
surface  had  been  drenched  by  muriatic  acid,  sulphurous 
acid,  and  other  powerful  agents,  and  those  forces  have  been 
withdrawn ;  the  crust  corrugated  and  came  to  a  condition 
where  spontaneous  generation  would  be  possible.  Bui 
whether  spontaneous  generation  was  the  way  in  which  life 
began,  we  don't  know  ;  we  can  only  state  that  the  time  has 
now  come  when  our  planet  was  fitted  for  life.  An  infinite 
time  had  passed  from  the  era  of  the  glowing  nebulae  to  the 
time  when  the  earth  was  in  the  stage  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
and  from  that  time  to  the  period  when  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual, at  last,  became  possible. 

The  period  of  life,  as  compared  with  the  whole  time  01 
the  evolution  of  the  earth,  is  but  like  a  wrinkle  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  ocean.  I  was  listening  some  time  ago  to  the 
theory  of  Prof.  Hyatt.  According  to  his  theory,  humanity 
is  now  at  the  top  of  Its  physical  and  mental  development, 
and  is  going  down  to  decrepitude  and  old  age.  The  period 
of  human  life  is  but  a  mere  dot  in  the  boundless  ocean  of 
time.  There  was  a  time  when  the  earth  was  looked  at  as  the 
center  of  space.  Men  gradually  gave  up  that  view  ana 
came  to  the  conviction  that  this  earth,  which  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  regard  as  the  most  important  body,  is  not 
central,  and  that  the  solar  system  is  not  central.  And  now 
we  see  that  we  have  to  deal  with  an  infinitude  utterly  beyond 
our  power  of  comprehension. 

I  want  to  impress  you  with  the  idea  that  I  have  no  desire 
to  create  a  doubt  as  to  the  existence  of  a  Being,  having  in 
finite  wisdom ;  but  we  cannot  understand  the  mysteries  of 
that  Being.  That  is  all  science  has  to  say.  But  that  there  is 
a  Being,  or  a  purpose  throughout  ail  the  Universe,  I  cannot 
understand  how  a  man  can  doubt.  We  find  ourselves  before 
a  mighty  mechanism,  going  on  around  us,  and  to  reject  the 
idea  of  some  scheme  working  throughout  it,  is  as  unreason- 
able as  to  reject  our  own  existence.  Many  doubt  even  the 
existence  and  the  very  facts  going  around.  "We  only  know 
what  surrounds  us  by  ideas ',  but  though  we  substitute  ideas 
instead  of  mechanism,  we  may  feel  sure  that  every  idea  has 
a  source,  although  we  are  not  able  to  understand  that  source. 
There  is  a  great  mistake  made  by  the  theologians  in  trying 


THE  LIFE  AND  DEATH   OP  WORLDS.  17 

to  explain  the  nature  of  God,  when  the  very  Bible  tells  us, 
41  God's  ways  are  not  our  ways."  There  is  the  old  question 
always  asked,  whether  by  searching,  we  can  find  God  ;  and 
science  will  give  the  old  answer  to  this  question:— We  can- 
not find  him  out. 


SECOND    LECTURE. 


THE  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OF  WOELDS, 


In  the  last  lecture  we  considered  the  past  history  of  the 
solar  system,  tracing  it  from  the  time  when  it  consisted  of  a 
great  mass  of  nebulous  matter,  spread  through  the  depth  of 
space  ;  through  the  times  when  orbs,  as  our  earth,  were  in 
the  sunlike  stage,  then  in  the  stage  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
up  to  the  time  of  its  cooling  and  its  coming  to  the  present 
state.  In  to-n'ght's  lecture  I  don't  propose  to  carry  the 
earth  through  her  whole  history  up  to  her  death,  but  I 
want  to  bring  before  you  the  life  and  death  of  the  other 
worlds  of  the  solar  system. 

There  are  differences  between  the  yarious  members  of 
our  system  ;  differences  taking  origin  in  their  mode  of  for- 
mation ;  and  taking  this  as  the  principle  of  evolution,  we 
cannot  regard  them  as  all  alike  in  their  history,  though  they 
may  be  alike  in  their  structure.  That  is  not  a  mere  specu- 
lative point,  and  if  we  once  recognize  the  fact  that  every 
planet  came  into  being  by  evolution,  out  of  matter,  we  have 
to  take  either  the  system  of  the  nebular  contraction,  out  of 
which  the  whole  was  formed,  or  my  system,  according  U 


18  THE  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OP  WOBLDa 

which  each  planet  forms  its  mass,  by  drawing  matter  from 
space.  We  have  this  certain,  that  larger  planets  are  first 
formed  ;  the  larger  a  planet,  the  greater  its  velocity  and  the 
power  to  capture  matter.  Every  planet  can  communicate  to 
the  matter  its  own  velocity.  The  sun  has  a  velocity  of  350 
miles  per  second  ;  Jupiter  40  miles  per  second  ;  in  our  own 
planet  it  is  7  miles  per  second;  and  each  planet  by  its  matter 
and  size,  has  a  certain  velocity  and  a  certain  heat,  corre- 
sponding to  the  planet's  first  state  of  existence  ;  the  greater 
the  planet,  the  greater  the  heat.  That  gives  to  the  larger 
planets  a  greater  lease  of  life  to  begin  with.  We  may  also 
suppose  that  the  larger  planets  take  longer  in  growing.  We 
can  reasonably  assume  that  the  giant  planets,  Jupiter  and 
Saturn,  have  not  yet  ceased  to  grow.  That  may  be  specula- 
tion, but  founded  on  a  true  principle.  If  the  greater  planets 
were  first  hot,  they  part  with  their  heat  later  than  the 
others.  If  you  take  two  iron  globes,  one  of  an  inch  and  the 
other  of  two  inches  in  diameter,  let  them  become  red  hot, 
and  place  them  to  cool  on  an  iron  stand,  or  any  place  where 
they  can  cool  under  equal  conditions,  the  smaller  cools 
before  the  larger.  The  reason  is,  that  the  larger  mass  has 
the  greater  quantity  of  heat  in  proportion  to  its  surface. 
The  heat  contained  is  in  proportion  to  the  bulk ;  the  heat 
given  off  is  in  proportion  to  the  surface.  The  larger  globe 
having  a  surface  four  tunes  larger,  but  a  bulk  eight  times 
surpassing  the  smaller,  will  give  out  four  times  as  much 
heat ;  but  will  have  eight  times  as  much  heat  to  give  out, 
and  so  will  keep  its  heat  twice  as  long  as  the  smaller.  It 
will  have  its  heat  last  longer  in  the  degree  that  it  exceeds 
the  diameter  of  the  smaller.  At  present  we  see  that  the 
larger  planets  have  a  smaller  density  ;  but  in  a  very  remote 
future  they  will  have  a  density  greater  than  the  earth. 
When  Jupiter  gets  cool,  it  will  dry  in  its  mass,  with  a  con- 
tractive power  three  times  larger  than  the  earth.  As  it 
exceeds  the  diameter  of  the  earth  ten  times,  it  would  be  re- 
duced to  seven  times  the  diameter  of  the  earth  at  that  time, 
consequently  the  period  of  Jupiter's  life,  according  to  the 
principle  I  have  shown,  would  be  seven  times  as  long  as  the 
period  of  our  earth's  life.  But  as  its  growing  will  continue 
for  such  a  long  period  yet,  its  surface  will  be  so  much  larger. 


THE   LIFE  AND  DEATH   OF   WORLDS.  19 

It  will  probably  be  ten  times  larger  than  OVLC  earth  at  the 
end  of  its  growth,  and  all  the  periods  of  its  life  wili  be  ten 
times  as  long.  Suppose  we  give  three  parts  to  the  vapor 
state,  two  to  the  sun  state,  one  to  the  Jupiter  and  Saturn 
state,  that  makes  six,  the  seventh  to  the  cooling  state,  and 
the  remaining  three  to  the  dense  state,  leaving  out  the  latter 
periods  of  death  ;  once  dead  it  will  remain  so ;  the  earth 
would  be  dead  before  Jupiter  had  passed  the  central  state. 
Jupiter  is  passing  the  central  state  now  ;  though  it  still 
glows  to  some  degree,  it  does  not  glow  like  the  sun.  The 
earth  would  arrive  to  the  state  of  death  before  Jupiter  had 
begun  life. 

We  have  clear  evidence  to  show  that  the  time  of  life  in 
different  planets  differ,  and  the  periods  they  pass  in  thus 
supporting  life  may  be  so  long,  that  the  whole  duration  of 
life  on  earth  seems  but  one  second.  One  stage  of  the  earth's 
history,  when  the  earth  was  cooling  from  2000  to  200  de- 
grees of  heat,  lasted  300,000,000  of  years.  Jupiter  has  not 
reached  that  time.  The  cooling  of  Jupiter  would  take  ten 
times  300,000,000  of  years.  We  have  to  look  through  long 
stages  before  life  will  come  out  of  the  giant's  mass.  As  in 
beginning  to  study  animal  life,  we  must  consider  different 
circumstances,  the  qualities  of  vitality,  the  laws  of  struc- 
ture, the  substance  out  of  which  they  are  made;  so  here  we 
must  consider  the  circumstances  in  which  the  planets  arise. 
We  see  that  Jupiter  and  the  earth  have  lines  of  difference 
and  lines  of  resemblance,  yet  we  have  no  positive  evidence  ; 
our  conclusions  are  drawn  from  the  mass  of  probabilities. 
We  find  the  sun  contains  the  same  materials  as  the  earth  ; 
we  find  by  test  they  are  both  of  the  same  structure,  and 
since  the  earth  is  like  the  sun,  every  planet  is  likely  to  be 
like  the  sun;  otherwise  we  have  no  positive  evidence.  The 
spectroscope  can  tell  us  about  the  atmosphere  of  the  sun, 
but  it  can  tell  us  nothing  about  its  solid  surface.  If  you 
turn  it  upon  the  central  body  you  see  bright  and  dark  lines, 
which  correspond  to  the  lines  given  by  the  substances  on 
our  earth.  We  proceed  to  have  the  nature  of  the  spectro- 
scope evidence  illustrated  on  the  screen  to  show  the  way  ia 
which  light  is  analyzed  by  the  prism ;  we  will  have  a  picture 
of  the  solar  spectrum  and  then  of  the  dark  lines.  Tba 


SO  THE  LIFE  AND   DEATH  OF  WORLDS. 

spectroscope  evidence  is  very  strictly  defined.  The  light  of 
the  sun  passes  through  the  prism  of  glass,  and  so  the  spec- 
trum is  formed.  You  see  the  light  spread  out  into  a  rain- 
bow streak,  red,  yellow,  violet,  but  some  colors  are  want- 
ing, and  dark  lines  are  formed  in  the  solar  spectrum  ;  those 
are  produced  by  vapors,  which  come  from  those  parts  of  the 
sun's  light,  which  contain  the  substances  giving  out  lights,  of 
the  same  color  as  the  light  they  cut  off. 

Another  picture  will  show  the  evidence  we  have,  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  vapors  present  in  the  sun's  atmosphere. 
You  see  a  number  of  bright  lines,  corresponding  in  position 
with  the  dark  lines  in  the  solar  spectrum,  which  prove  that 
the  bright  element  is  present  in  the  sun.  It  is  the  vapor  of 
iron  which  gives  that  bright  line.  It  has  a  corresponding 
line  in  the  solar  spectrum  ;  therefore,  the  evidence  of  iron 
being  there  is  clear.  Here  you  see  the  spectra  of  various 
elements,  compared  to  the  solar  spectrum  to  see  if  they  are 
present  in  the  sun.  A  great  many  of  them  exist  in  the  sun, 
and  we  may  infer  that  all  the  others  are  there.  Through 
the  recent  researches  of  Michelet,  a  great  addition  has  been 
made  to  those  of  our  elements,  found  in  the  atmosphere  of 
the  sun,  and  we  are  led  to  believe  that  some  of  our  elements 
exist  underneath  the  glowing  atmosphere  of  the  sun  ;  they 
may  be  below  the  part  of  the  sun  which  gives  the  chief  por- 
tion of  light.  The  part  of  the  sun  we  see,  is  the  limit  to 
which  the  elements  must  reach  to  give  a  sign  of  their  pres- 
enc  e.  Gold  must  exist  in  the  sun,  but  lower  down. 

Now  we  will  consider  the  points  I  referred  to,  with  regard 
to  the  size  of  the  planets.  We  have  the  indications  of  the 
various  ages  of  the  planets  ;  we  have  evidence  as  to  the  du- 
ration or  their  life.  There  you  have  Mercury.  He  is  one 
of  the  smallest  of  the  planets,  and  would  have  the  shortest 
life;  then  comes  Venus,  then  the  earth  and  the  moon,  then 
Mars,  who  has  a  shorter  life  and  is  now  older  than  the 
earth  ;  then  the  asteroids,  then  Jupiter  and  Saturn.  Jupi- 
ter would  be  the  youngest  of  the  planets,  but  there  is  a 
doubt,  because  we  don't  know  how  long  the  planets  were 
growing,  and  I  think  that  Saturn,  though  smaller  than  Jupi- 
ter, is  older,  and  in  3,000,000,000  years  when  Jupiter  has 
reached  the  epoch  of  the  living  creature,  Saturn  will  be 


SHE  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OF  WORLDS.  21 

gone.  Neptune  would  be  older  than  the  earth,  he  may 
already  have  put  on  life,  which  would  last  longer  there  than 
on  earth,  but  that  may  have  passed.  Here  is  a  picture  rep- 
resenting Jupiter  enwrapped  in  clouds  in  the  stage  which  I 
have  shown.  Another  illustrating  the  colors  of  the  planets, 
and  here  I  will  bring  the  latest  development  of  science  in 
ravor  of  my  theory  ;  that  Jupiter  is  so  young  that  he  is  en- 
wrapped in  cloudy  masses.  U!  his  atmosphere  was  dense, 
tiie  shadow  might  fall  on  the  lower  atmospheric  strata.  In 
some  cases  we  can  see  two  shadows ;  one  on  one  layer  of 
tne  clouds,  another  on  the  lower  strata.  Looking  from  a 
distant  planet  with  a  powerful  telescope,  the  two  shadows 
would  appear  side  by  side,  and  would  look  like  a  long  streak 
of  shadow  passing  through  the  deep  strata  of  the  atmo- 
sphere. The  clouds  in  Jupiter's  atmosphere  throw  shadows 
in  that  way  with  long  streaks,  showing  that  they  are  passing 
through  a  deep  atmosphere.  It  shows  my  theory,  that  the 
great  planet  is  enwrapped  in  a  far  deeper  atmosphere  and 
surrounded  by  greater  clouds  than  would  correspond  to  the 
stage  of  our  earth. 

Here  is  Jupiter  and  his  satellites,  which  he  commands  in  a 
different  way  than  that  in  which  the  earth  commands  the 
moon.  If  you  were  living  beneath  Jupiter  and  could  test  the 
way  in  which  you  were  attracted  to  Jupiter  and  to  the  sun, 
comparing  the  two  attractions,  and  could  afterwards  compare 
the  earth's  and  the  sun's  attraction,  you  would  see  the  relation 
is  quite  different.  The  region  of  space  upon  which  earth 
has  command  is  comparatively  insignificant,  and  it  is  the 
sun  that  rules  the  moon,  not  the  earth.  But  in  Jupiter  it  is 
different.  The  whole  family  of  Jupiter  have  an  orbit  of 
8,000,000  of  miles  ;  but  they  must  pass  very  far  above  the 
sun,  and  Jupiter  commands  a  space  of  29,000,000  of  miles. 
The  same  with  Saturn,  he  being  further  away  from  the  sun, 
but  almost  within  the  domain  of  Jupiter.  Uranus'  domain, 
like  his  diameter,  is  great.  Neptune  has  a  still  larger  domain. 
Besides  this  difference  from  the  earth,  they  are  characters 
of  a  different  kind.  Here  is  a  picture  of  Saturn,  showing 
that  he  corresponds  in  appearance  with  the  theory  I  bring 
before  you.  Here  is  a  picture  illustrating  the  proportion! 
of  the  satellite  system ;  the  satellites  ruled  over  by  the  plan- 


33  THE  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OP  WORLDS. 

cts  of  the  larger  family ;  Saturnus  with  his  ring  and  the 
satellites  below  you,  see  the  scheme  of  Uranus,  the  scheme 
of  Jupiter  and  then  the  satellite  we  perceive  around  Nep- 
tune. Saturn  and  Jupiter  have  the  largest  schemes,  Uranua 
and  Neptune  the  smallest.  It  has  been  shown  that  Sir  Wm. 
Herschel  was  mistaken  in  thinking  he  saw  four  satellites  of 
Uranus.  Some  thought  Uranus  would  have  a  larger  scheme 
and  more  satellites,  because  of  his  distance  from  the  sun  ; 
but  his  little  scheme  corresponds  with  his  size. 

Now  we  have  the  planet  Mars  and  the  ocean  on  it,  repre- 
sented by  a  dark  space;  it  shows  the  comparative  smallness 
of  the  water  surface  of  that  planet.  You  see  that  sea  of 
Mars  running  north  and  south.  I  call  it  the  Kaiser  sea,  by 
the  name  of  the  astronomer  who  first  observed  it.  We 
notice  there  the  relative  smallness  of  the  seas  and  the  larger 
continents.  The  seas  of  Mars  cover  but  one-half  of  the 
planet's  surface.  We  will  proceed  to  consider  why  t'ue  seas 
of  Mars  are  smaller  than  those  of  the  earth.  The  water 
surface  of  our  globe  bears  to  the  surface  of  the  continent  a 
proportion  of  72  to  28.  In  Mars  the  two  surfaces  are  equal. 
The  conclusion  seems  to  be,  that  the  older  the  planet,  the 
smaller  the  ocean.  That  sounds  so  startling,  so  sensational, 
that  it  seems  as  if  it  was  a  lie.  Yet  it  so  happens,  that  four 
students,  one  in  Germany,  one  in  France,  one  in  England, 
and  one  in  this  country,  have  been  led  to  the  same  conclu- 
sion ;  that  the  oceans  of  the  planets,  as  it  grows  older,  are 
soaked  up.  They  are  withdrawn  in  cavities.  You  must 
remember  that  the  planet's  mass  is  always  pressed  by  the 
contractive  force  of  the  planet.  Even  steel  under  the  press- 
ure, at  the  interior  of  the  planet,  would  become  plastic  and 
would  flow  like  water.  It  has  been  made  to  flow  like  a  vis- 
cid substance  under  the  pressure  that  men  could  give,  how 
much  more  would  it  flow  in  the  interior  of  a  planet  like  our 
earth.  So  the  mass  contracting  together  and  tne  heat  de- 
parting, interstices  might  be  formed  into  which  the  water 
may  fee  withdrawn  and  will  be  withdrawn.  When  the 
earth  has  cooled  down  to  the  freezing  point,  there  will  be 
room  for  the  water  and  a  large  part  of  the  atmosphere. 
Stanislas  Meunier  has  found  that,  when  the  water  is  with- 
drawn, the  ocean  assumes  a  peculiar  shape  ;  you  see  there 


THE  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OF  WORLDS.  38 

those  long,  narrow  inlets  characteristic  of  that  period. 
You  have  here  all  the  telescopic  views  of  Mars  that  can  be 
relied  upon  ;  I  collected  them  as  carefully  as  I  could. 

We  will  not  now  deal  with  a  planet  which  shows  one 
later  stage.  Mars  shows  the  decrepitude;  what  we  see  now 
is  a  planet  arrived  at  death,  going  around  the  sun  a  mere 
graveyard  carrying  the  memories  of  past  life.  First  there  is 
the  comparison  of  moon  and  earth  in  size.  The  moon  is 
small  enough  to  be  in  extreme  old  age,  if  not  arrived  at 
death.  We  have  seen  that  Jupiter  presents  all  the  appear- 
ances of  heat.  Now  we  have  a  theory  making  the  moon  cold 
and  dead  and  the  evidences  correspond. 

Those  photographic  views  of  the  moon  have  been  made 
in  Australia ;  they  are  the  first  ever  made  there.  The  pecul- 
iar feature  is  the  ab&ence  of  the  twilight  circle.  You  see 
bright  patches  of  light  and  dark  shadows,  painted  by  the 
moon  itself,  and  showing  there  is  no  atmosphere.  In  the 
next  picture  the  darkness  has  passed  further  ;  you  see  the 
seas  where  doubtless  there  is  no  water.  Those  who  have 
studied  the  moon  with  the  telescope  saw  there  was  an  ocean 
at  the  bottom  of  which  matter  was  deposited.  The  surfaces, 
of  course,  are  not  perfectly  level.  If  we  should  take  the 
water  from  our  earth,  we  would  find  level  spaces  ;  but  also 
inequalities  and  rocks,  yet  you  might  see  there  had  beea 
water — it  is  the  same  in  the  case  of  the  moon.  Here  is  the 
further  stage — it  is  the  full  moon — and  you  cannot  look  at 
this  picture  without  feeling  there  is  no  water  nor  air.  No 
changes  could  take  place  there;  we  have  one  evidence  of  it 
in  the  absence  of  the  twilight  circle.  Then  in  observing  the 
moon  passing  over  a  star,  you  see  the  star  flash  out  suddenly, 
if  there  were  an  atmosphere  round  the  moon,  the  star  would 
be  seen  precisely  as  our  sun  when  sinking.  You  also  see 
the  blackness  of  the  shadows  of  the  lunar  system,  which 
shows  that  there  is  no  illuminated  sky  such  as  ours,  no  at- 
mosphere to  illuminate  those  regions.  We  have  still  an- 
other evidence  from  the  lunar  eclipses.  If  we  notice  the 
real  color  of  the  shadow,  if  instead  of  being  black  there  is  a 
red  copper  view,  it  you  watch  the  lunar  eclipse,  you  know 
it  is  caused  by  the  reflection  of  the  sun's  light  passing  in  the 
lunar  atmosphere.  There  would  be  a  broad  ring  of  light 


24  THE  LIFE  AND   DEATH   »F   WORLDS. 

caused  by  the  su'i  We  see  in  this  case  nothing  of  that 
kind  happens. 

Another  picture  illustrates  how  it  would  appear  as  seen 
from  the  moon,  the  earth  biding  the  sun,  but  not  hiding  the 
sun's  light.  Here  a-roimd  the  globe  you  see  that  light,  which 
is  the  sun's  own  light,  the  image  of  the  sun  raised  by  the 
lens  so  as  to  form  that  light. 

The  difference  between  the  earth  and  the  moon  is  that  as 
the  water  has  passed  away  the  atmosphere  is  reduced  in 
quantity.  This  is  the  lunar  sea  or  lunar  crater.  The  in- 
terior has  the  flat  appearance  of  which  I  spoke.  Sir  John 
Herschel  describes  it  as  alluvial  deposits.  I  think  they  are 
deposits  formed  at  the  bottom  of  the  lunar  ocean.  Now  you 
will  see  the  part  of  the  moon  where  the  water  is  supposed  to 
be.  Borne  persons  account  for  the  disapperance  of  the 
water  by  its  being  carried  to  the  side  which  is  never  turned 
to  us.  You  observe  th  it  it  is  more  than  half  the  moon  which 
we  see.  Taking  a  side  view  of  the  moon — this  side  is  the 
furthest  part  of  the  moon,  this  is  the  middle.  This  belt  is 
the  one  which  Is  carried  into  view  and  out  of  view  by  the 
moon's  vibrations.  This  black  portion  is  so  very  much  less 
than  half  of  the  moon,  the  water  and  the  atmosphere  taken 
there  must  be  very  clever  in  playing  hide  and  seek  to  keep 
thus  concealed.  Here  you  see  an  outline  of  the  moon's  disk, 
with  a  little  cross  in  the  centre  circle,  inclosed  in  a  rectangle 
representing  the  way  in  which  the  moon's  centre  is  carried 
upwards  and  downwards  with  symmetrical  motions.  The 
whole  lunar  theory  is  mirrored  in  those  motions. 

Here  is  a  supposed  lunar  eruption  of  a  volcano.  The 
moon  is  under  sunlight,  it  is  day,  yet  the  sky  is  dark  ;  you 
would  see  the  stars  tnere  as  clearly  in  the  full  day  as  at 
night.  There  is  a  fault  in  this  picture,  in  the  way  the  smoke 
is  carried  from  the  volcano.  Like  the  carbonic  acid  in  our 
air,  these  clouds,  being  heavier  than  the  surrounding  me- 
dium, would  flow  down  the  sides  of  the  mountain  like 
water.  You  see  here  the  dead  surface  of  the  moon,  the 
degrees  of  death  shown  by  the  blackness  of  the  shadows  ; 
that  ruggedness  which  shows  former  activity  but  death  at 
present. 

This  picture  presents  the  surface  of  the  moon  covered 


THE  LltfE  AND  DEATH   OP   WORLDS.  25 

witn  craters.  Here  I  want  to  speak  of  a  theory  which  was 
thought  two  years  ago  too  sensational.  That  was  the  theory 
that  a  portion  of  the  matter  forming  the  craters  might  have 
been  produced  by  the  falling  of  the  meteors.  I  don't  sup- 
pose a  large  crater  could  be  produced  in  that  way,  but  some 
of  the  craters  must  have  preserved  the  signs  of  the  meteoric 
forces  impressed  upon  them  from  the  time  when  meteors 
poured  from  the  solar  system  on  the  earth  in  immense 
masses.  The  moon  traveling  alongside  of  the  earth,  which 
is  traveling  round  the  sun  and  is  assaulted  by  myriads  of 
meteors  following  the  same  direction,  cannot  fail  as  the 
companion  of  the  earth  to  catch  its  part  of  the  downward  fall 
of  those  meteors,  just  as  two  persons  of  different  size,  travel- 
ing in  the  rain,  in  the  same  direction,  get  each  a  portion  of  the 
falling  drops  corresponding  to  the  surface  they  present. 
Those  meteors,  even  now,  may  produce  perceivable  changes 
in  the  moon's  condition.  But  looking  back  through  the 
thousand  millions  of  years  during  which  the  moon's  surface 
was  passing  from  the  plastic  state,  in  which  it  could  retain 
the  impression  given  by  the  meteoric  masses,  I  cannot  im- 
agine how  the  moon  could  have  escaped  from  being  changed 
by  them.  The  downfall  of  the  meteors  in  our  days  is  merely 
a  residue  of  a  process  far  more  active. 

You  see  here  the  craters  of  the  moon  very  much  like  those 
on  our  earth.  There  is  a  resemblance  between  the  condi- 
tion of  the  moon's  and  the  earth's  surface.  Some  of  the 
students  think  that  those  long,  dark  streaks  are  ridges  on  the 
moon's  surface,  long  cracks,  as  it  were,  that  belong  to  the 
time  of  the  cracking  stage,  when  the  outer  crust  contracted 
more  rapidly  than  the  nucleus.  Nasmyth,  in  his  book,  deals 
with  those  questions  in  a  way  which  is  well  worth  studying. 
It  would  be  hard  if  no  man  would  bring  theories  until  they 
are  proved.  He  studied  the  moon  for  thirty  years  and  hia 
work  is  worthy  of  our  consideration,  even  if  we  are  not  con- 
vinced. 

If  we  compare  these  pictures  representing  the  craters  of 
the  earth  with  those  of  the  moon,  we  see  a  singular  resem- 
blance between  the  two,  showing  that  when  the  atmosphere 
has  disappeared  our  earth  will  present  the  same  features  as 
the  moon:  the  want  of  atmosphere,  the  want  of  water,  tht 


26  THE  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OF  WORLDS. 

same  deadness  and  the  life  erased  from  it.  Now  we  have 
come  to  the  prospect  of  earth  passing  away  and  becoming 
dead,  going  round  the  sun  with  no  sign  of  life  in  it.  The 
thought  is  painful ;  but  we  perceive  that  death  comes  upon 
man,  either  by  accident,  or  disease,  or  slow  decay,  so  there 
are  different  ways  in  which  it  can  come  upon  our  earth. 
There  we  see  that  moon  scarcely  raised  in  our  conception 
above  mechanism,  where  one  recognizes  no  power  of  action, 
no  moral  purpose.  The  character  of  life  is  given  to  our 
earth  by  the  individuals  inhabiting  it.  It  is  while  man  ex- 
ists upon  the  earth  that  we  look  at  it  as  a  matter  of  interest. 

Prof.  Hyatt,  of  Boston,  has  dwelt  upon  the  fact  of  the  de- 
cadence of  types  of  life  and  he  goes  to  show  that  man  has 
passed  the  higher  development  of  the  physical  part  of  life, 
although  mental  development  can  be  expected  yet.  Sup- 
posing that  not  to  be  true,  (and  I  suppose  Prof.  Hyatt  is 
mistaken)  there  is  another  view  according  to  the  old  prophecy, 
that  as  life  was  once  destroyed  by  water,  so  the  earth  is  to 
be  dissolved  by  fire.  We  know  how  long  that  belief  has 
prevailed.  If  death  comes  to  the  earth  in  that  way,  it  may 
simply  be  by  a  glowing  of  the  sun  far  surpassing  what  we 
have  at  the  present  day.  Death  may  come  upon  the  earth 
by  the  intensity  of  heat  poured  upon  it.  Here  you  see  a 
picture  of  a  star,  in  the  constellation  of  the  crown  which 
appeared  suddenly  in  a  conflagration  some  time  ago,  giving 
out  hundreds  of  times  its  accustomed  heat,  there  you  see  the 
bright  lines  produced  by  the  conflagration  of  hydrogen  over 
that  star.  So  we  may  suppose  that  the  sun  can  raise  its 
heat  to  a  degree  which  would  cause  the  death  of  the  crea- 
tures on  the  earth.  Then  we  have  the  prospect  of  the  natu- 
ral death  of  the  planet  by  the  slow  process  of  cooling. 

So  we  have  to  recognize  the  evidence  that  death  has  to 
come  upon  the  earth  at  some  future  time,  however  unpleas- 
ant the  thought  may  be,  and  that  after  life  has  gone  from  our 
earth  it  will  go  to  the  larger  planets,  then  after  hundreds  of 
millions  of  years,  during  which  life  can  last  on  Jupiter  and 
the  other  planets  of  our  solar  system,  a  period  may  come 
when  the  whole  of  our  system  will  be  the  abode  of  death. 
Then  it  may  be  that  our  sun  will  take  on  rife,  its  internal 
heat  being  sufficient  to  assist  life.  Then  iif e  would  pass  to 


WORLDS  TtfAJf  OURS.  t7 

another  solar  system,  and  so  age  after  age  the  worlds  of 
eternity  will  live  in  glorious  beauty.  There  is  no  finality 
in  astronomy,  there  is  no  finality  in  what  science  teacJies. 
We  may  find  a  new  kind  of  life  within  the  Universe;  we 
may  find  in  it  a  new  meaning  even  in  the  forms  of  de*tb. 
As  when  the  sun  is  concealed  in  heaven  at  night,  the  starry 
vault  spread  over  our  head  surpasses  even  the  glory  of  the 
sunlight.  So  will  death  become  a  higher  sign  of  life. 


THIRD    LECTURE. 


OTHER  WORLDS  THAN  OURS, 


The  subject  of  life  in  other  worlds  is  not,  strictly  speak- 
ing, a  scientific  one,  because  science  relates  to  that  which 
can  be  known.  Nothing  can  be  certainly  known  about  life 
in  the  other  worlds.  The  astronomer  can  deal  with  material 
facts  in  the  planets ;  can  consider  their  volume,  their  laws, 
the  dimensions  of  their  orbits ;  the  geologist  can  study  the 
ancient  condition  of  our  earth,  and  how  far  it  can  illustrate 
the  histories  of  other  planets ;  the  biologist  may  consider  the 
life  of  animals  and  how  they  are  developed;  the  physicist 
can  inquire  into  the  construction  of  the  earth  and  its  various 
parts,  and  they  all  can  hope  to  find  the  substances  that  exist 
in  the  planets ;  but  if  any  one  could  combine  the  knowledge 
they  all  have,  he  would  be  unable  to  pronounce  whether 
there  is  life  in  the  other  worlds.  The  only  kind  of  observa- 
tion which  would  carry  evidence  would  be  the  observation 
of  his  own  senses. 


88  OTHER  WORLDS  THAN  OURS. 

Although  the  subject  is  not  scientific,  yet  this  study  of  the 
£fe  in  other  worlds  gives  us  the  means  of  combining  to- 
>4ether  the  various  facts  of  astronomy,  and  so  bring  them  to 
the  knowledge,  and  awaken  the  interest,  of  those  who  do 
study  astronomy  specially. 

In  dealing  with  the  subject,  I  meant  to  bring  before  you  a 
new  theory.  It  has  been  connected  with  religious  questions 
insomuch,  that  Brewster  spoke  of  the  theory  for  which 
Giordano  Bruno  was  burnt  at  the  stake  in  Rome  in  1600, 
as  "the  hope  of  the  philosopher  and  the  creed  of  the  Chris- 
tian. "  Many  persons  think  that  the  religion  they  are  taught 
cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  thought  of  life  in  other  worlds 
than.ours.  We  can  dismiss  here  the  thoughts  of  religion. 
In  connecting  religion  with  the  subject — in  finding  religious 
meaning  in  it — we  act  as  the  Scotchman  does,  in  a  story  a 
friend  of  mine  is  in  the  habit  of  telling.  Two  Scotchmen 
speaking  together,  the  mind  of  one  was  much  exercised 
regarding  the  true  place  of  the  bumblebee  in  the  animal 
kingdom.  He  said  to  the  other:  "Jimmy  McDonald,  can 
ye  tell  me  whether  a  bumblebee  is  a  bird  or  a  beast?  "  The 
other  replied:  "  Sammy  McFarland,  ye  must  not  trouble  me 
with  religious  questions  on  a  week-day."  So  science  asks 
sometimes  all  manner  of  questions,  as  the  poet  says  alxmt 

"  Bones  and  sealing  wax  and  things, 

And  why  the  sea  is  boiling  hot, 
And  wherefore  pigs  have  wings." 

In  the  midst  of  these  questions  the  religious  man  is  troubled 
with  the  thoughts  that  those  are  religious  questions,  asked  by 
laymen  who  have  no  business  to  deal  with  them.  But  in 
reality  we  may  discuss  what  life  we  may  have  in  the  future, 
without  connecting  the  question  with  religion  at  all. 

I  bring  a  theory  immediately  between  the  one  advanced 
by  Brewster,  Chalmers,  and  Dr.  Dix,  who  say  that  all  the 
orbs  are  either  the  abodes  of  life  or  intended  to  support  life; 
and  the  theory  of  Whewell,  who  contends  that  ours  is  the 
only  inhabited  world.  To  decide  between  the  two  theories 
is  to  decide  whether  a  bumblebee  is  a  bird  or  a  beast.  Al- 
though we  cannot  know  all  about  those  matters,  my  theory 
corresponds  well  with  scientific  evidence;  it  n.ay  be  consid- 


OTHER  WORLDS   THAN   OURS.  $9 

ered  to  correspond  satisfactorily  with  ihe  facts  and  to  accord 
with  the  theological  feeling.  Before  the  time  when  life 
began  on  earth,  there  was  a  time  practically  infinite,  when 
no  life  was  possible,  and  there  will  be  one  equally  infinite 
when  life  shall  cease  to  be  possible.  Between  the  two  we 
find  the  time  when  life  is  in  progress,  and  that  period  being 
finite,  this  space  between  two  infinites  may  be  compared  to 
a  ripple  on  the  ocean  of  time  that  represents  our  world's 
history;  that  ocean  being  a  mere  wave  on  the  ocean  of  infin- 
ite time.  Like  this  period  of  our  earth's  history,  there  is  a 
corresponding  period  in  the  life  of  every  planet.  The  larger 
the  planet,  the  longer  the  period;  but  it  would  be  short 
compared  with  the  whole  history  of  the  planet.  We  might 
ask  whether  the  planets  are  inhabited  just  now.  But  as  we 
have  no  better  reason  to  think  that  this  present  time  is  cen- 
tral in  all  time,  than  to  consider  our  earth  as  being  central 
in  space,  we  have  to  look  at  some  remote  period  of  the  past 
or  of  the  future  as  the  period  of  life  in  other  worlds.  The 
chance  is  small  that  any  planet  of  our  system  is  now  the 
abode  of  life.  It  may  appear  to  you  that  I  am  taking  Whe- 
well's  theory;  but  I  will  tell  you  about  regions  where  mil- 
lions of  inhabited  worlds  may  exist  at  this  time,  so  that  on 
the  one  hand  with  Brewster,  you  may  believe  in  other  in- 
habited worlds,  and  on  the  other  hand  I  will  bring  the  evi- 
dence which  does  not  allow  us  to  overlook  the  facts  that 
some  planets — the  moon,  for  instance — are  dead  and  have 
ceased  to  subserve  the  purposes  of  life,  or  to  see  that  Jupiter 
is  not  yet  fit  for  life. 

Now  I  will  sketch  what  we  know  of  Venus  and  Mercury, 
then  pass  to  Mars  and  inquire  whether  there  is  a  chance  at 
all  that  we  will  find  the  possibilities  of  life  there ;  then  to 
the  asteroids,  then  speak  of  the  larger  planets,  and  in  consid- 
ering all  those  orbs,  I  shall  try  to  bring  the  evidence  to  the 
latest  possible  period.  I  must  mention  here  the  difficulties 
astronomers  find  in  observing  planets  like  Venus,  traveling 
within  the  path  of  our  earth.  In  no  part  of  its  motion  is  it 
well  placed  for  observation.  When  near  the  earth  the 
sun  lies  in  the  same  direction,  and  therefore  Venus  turns  to 
us  her  darkened  side  and  cannot  be  seen.  When  beyond  the 
tun,  his  brightness  obscures  her. 


30  OTHER  WORLDS   THAN    OURS. 

There  is  the  piefcire  of  the  inner  part  of  the  solar  system, 
You  see  the  sun,  and  Venus  being  carried  around  her.  Strict- 
ly speaking,  it  takes  584  days  in  making  one  circle;  but, 
probably,  I  could  not  pursuade  you  to  remain  here  so  long. 
You  notice  here  that  Venus  is  in  a  position  where  she  can 
be  observed  from  the  earth  without  looking  towards  the 
sun.  Only  one-half  of  the  illuminated  part  is  turned  to- 
wards the  earth.  The  distance  increasing,  the  planet  passes 
to  a  part  of  its  orbit  where  the  observer  has  to  look  towards 
the  sun,  and  Venus  is  concealed  by  the  illuminating  atmos- 
phere. Now  she  passes  to  a  part  where  she  can  be  looked 
on  again  without  looking  at  the  sun,  and  presents  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  half  moon,  and  now  passing  on  she  turns  the 
dark  hemisphere  towards  the  earth,  and  now  the  whole  of 
the  dark  hemisphere  is  presented.  The  same  applies  to 
Mercury.  You  see  here  the  different  appearances  presented 
by  Mercury  at  the  different  parts  of  its  orbit.  Notice  how 
close  Mercury  and  Venus  are  to  the  sun;  the  sun  pours 
more  heat  on  them  than  on  the  earth.  The  question  arises 
whether  a  planet  in  its  old  age  might  not  have  the  extreme 
cold  of  its  mass  compensated  by  the  heat  of  the  sun.  Mer- 
cury has  ten  times  as  much  heat  poured  upon  her  as  we 
have;  and  at  the  farthest  distance  from  the  sun  it  has  four 
times  as  much  heat  as  the  earth.  Being  so  much  smaller 
than  our  planet,  he  is  probably  much  colder,  and  the  ques- 
tion is,  whether  that  heat  from  the  sun  could  make  up  f o  r 
the  coldness  of  its  entire  mass. 

We  know  that  our  moon  has  parted  with  nearly  all  its  orig- 
inal heat,  but  the  sun  pours  heat  upon  it  with  such  force 
that  its  immediate  surface  is  raised  to  the  boiling  point. 
Yet  this  contrast  of  heat  and  intense  cold  does  not  corre- 
spond to  the  requirements  of  the  living  creatures,  and  there- 
fore Mercury  never  can  have  been  the  abode  of  life.  Still 
we  may  allow  a  large  range  for  the  possibilities  of  life 
wherever  there  is  an  atmosphere.  Life  cannot  exist  with- 
out atmosphere  or  water.  But  on  Mercury  and  Venus  the 
excess  of  sun  poured  upon  them  would  not  make  life  im- 
possible. Creatures  could  be  so  adapted  that  they  could 
bear  the  greater  heat.  You  have  here  three  views  of  the 
earth,  the  larger  planets  Venus  on  the  right  and  Mars  on  the 


OTHER  WORLDS  THAN   OURS.  81 

left,  and  between  them  the  two  smaller  ones — Mercury  and 
the  moon.  Supposing  all  these  planets  came  into  being  at 
the  same  time  by  the  process  of  aggregation,  they  may  have 
started  with  equal  activity  in  their  development.  Some 
grew  more  rapidly,  and  although  larger,  they  came  to  their 
full  growth  sooner.  It  may  be  some  of  these  planets  are  yet 
growing  perceptibly.  It  is  possible  sma^er  planets  are  not 
as  old  as  we  imagine.  Venus  may  be  so  situated,  and  the 
excess  of  heat  poured  upon  Venus  does  not  obviate  the  pos- 
sibilities of  life.  There  are  some  circumstances  in  Mars 
which  correspond  with  this  theory.  Here  you  have  the  ap- 
pearances of  Mercury  when  heated;  to  us  it  presents  only  a 
small  part  of  its  surface  and  has  a  crescent  shape  and  only  at 
the  furthest  distance  can  we  see  its  whole  face  illuminated. 

Now  I  will  pass  to  Venus,  interesting  because  of 
the  transit.  You  may  notice  the  crescent  of  Venus  is  not 
always  perfect,  on  the  left  hand;  instead  of  being  sharply 
denned  it  appears  short.  There  are  irregularities  on  the 
surface  of  the  planet,  and  observing  them  Bianchini  and  one 
of  his  followers  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  planet  turns 
on  its  axis  in  about  twenty-four  of  our  hours.  The  lower 
part  illustrates  the  existence  of  a  twilight  circle  in  the  plan- 
et. When  Venus  was  making  its  passage  on  the  sun's  face, 
a  fine  arc  of  light  was  observable,  showing  it  must  have  an 
atmosphere  that  raises  the  sun's  light  around  the  planet  just 
as  when  the  sun  is  setting.  If  some  one  was  facing  Venus 
at  that  particular  point,  he  would  see  Venus  raised  by  com- 
bining those  two  lines  of  light.  That  accounts  for  that  ray 
of  light  seen  during  the  transit.  Though  we  know  that 
there  is  on  Venus  an  atmosphere  which  answers  the  require- 
ments of  life,  yet  from  the  mere  facts  that  a  planet  has  an 
atmosphere  or  turns  round  its  axis  and  has  night  and  day, 
01  turns  round  the  sun  and  has  the  seasons,  we  cannot  draw 
the  conclusion  that  the  planet  is  at  this  time  the  abode  of 
life. 

Now  we  turn  to  our  moon,  which  shows  the  deadness  of 
which  I  have  spoken.  I  may  take  this  opportunity  to  pre- 
sent the  question  asked  by  some  scientists,  as  to  how,  if  the 
earth  was  gradually  cooling — having  been  much  hotter  in  its 
past  history — can  we  find  the  traces  of  glaciers  where  thew 


32  OTHER   WORLDS   THAN   OURS. 

is  no  ice.  This  question  cannot  be  met  with  scientific  dem- 
onstrations here ;  I  have  to  present  before  you  the  general 
results  obtained  by  astronomers,  rather  than  calculations  or 
profound  study. 

The  earth's  orbit  is  eccentric,  and  we  are  so  placed  that 
when  the  earth  is  nearest  to  the  sun,  our  winter  is  in  prog- 
ress and  the  summer  of  the  southern  hemisphere ;  when  the 
earth  has  retired  from  the  sun,  our  summer  is  in  progress. 
Therefore  both  Summer  and  Winter  are  milder  in  the  north- 
ern hemisphere,  speaking  generally.  In  the  other  hemi- 
sphere it  is  different.  They  have  the  sun  nearest  in 
Summer,  remotest  in  Winter.  Thus  the  glaciers  in 
the  South  extend  further  than  in  the  North.  The  long, 
intense  cold  allows  the  snow  to  accumulate  and  spread 
through  the  southern  hemisphere.  But  the  eccentricity  of 
the  earth  changes,  and  if  you  go  back  several  hundred  thou- 
sand years,  you  find  certain  stages  where  the  snows  of  the 
northern  hemisphere,  owing  to  the  difference  in  the  eccen- 
tricity, spread  more  widely.  And  so  in  the  latitudes  where 
the  glacier's  actions  are  not  now  in  progress  they  neverthe- 
once  existed.  Those  changes  of  eccentricity  have  been 
shown  to  us  by  several  astronomers,  and  we  may  accept 
the  theory  as  practically  certain. 

Now  we  pass  to  the  planet  Mars,  whose  orbit  is  much 
more  eccentric  than  that  of  the  earth.  You  see  Mars  much 
nearer  to  us  in  the  upper  part  of  his  orbit  than  in  the  lower 
part,  and  being  nearer  he  looks  larger  and  more  brightly 
illuminated.  In  1877  Mars  will  make  a  remarkable  approach 
of  this  kind,  and  many  will  be  disposed  to  believe  a  new 
red  star  has  made  its  appearance.  We  can  then  make  ex- 
periments of  the  earth's  distance  and  determine  the  scale  of 
the  solar  system  whose  proportions  are  known  to  us. 

The  features  of  Mercury  have  not  the  changing  appearance 
of  the  belts  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn,  showing  they  are  only 
clouds.  If  you  look  at  it  through  a  telescope,  you 
see  prominent  markings,  and  you  are  satisfied  they  are 
lands  and  oceans.  You .  see  the  sea  running  Nor £i  and 
South,  with  little  narrow  inlets.  Here  on  the  right  you  per- 
ceive two  seas  running  side  by  side.  The  planet  has  been 
carried  round  through  a  complete  rotation.  You  must  con- 


OTHER  WOKLDS  THAN   OTTBa  88 

gider  that  all  the  features  of  the  planet  cannot  be  seen  at 
once;  parts  of  the  planet  are  sometimes  wrapped  in  clouds. 
There  you  may  notice  a  dark  sea  which  was  not  shown  in 
other  views.  In  studying  Mars  the  sky  must  be  clear,  not 
only  on  this  earth,  but  also  in  the  planet.  Owing  to  the  clouds, 
after  weeks  of  study  of  the  olanet,  a  feature  like  this  has 
not  been  seen.  It  has  been  discovered  quite  recently. 
Looking  at  these  green  lands  and  seas,  you  might  doubt 
whether  those  green  masses  are  really  seas.  It  seems  a§ 
though  nothing  short  of  the  chemical  analysis  can  assure 
you  that  they  are  really  seas.  But  here  the  spectroscope 
comes  in.  By  means  of  the  spectroscope  analysis  the  chem- 
ist cannot  ascertain  the  nature  of  the  solid  or  fluid  sub 
stances  of  the  planet,  but  he  can  say  what  its  atmosphere  is 
composed  of.  It  matters  not  how  long  the  track  of  the 
light  may  be,  its  message  is  just  as  perfect  on  ten  or  a  hun- 
dred millions  of  miles  as  if  watched  in  the  laboratory  of  the 
chemist.  The  light  comes  from  the  sun  and  the  beam  is  re- 
ceived on  Mars,  passes  through  the  atmosphere,  is  reflected 
back  again,  passes  a  second  time  through  the  atmosphere, 
then  reaches  our  earth.  And  as  the  beam  passes  through  the 
atmosphere  the  chemical  astronomer  can  take  it  and  see  what 
the  substance  of  the  planet's  atmosphere  is.  Dr.  Huggins,  in 
1864,  applied  those  means  to  Mars  and  noticed  that  across  the 
solar  spectrum  there  were  dark  bands  showing  the  presence 
of  aqueous  vapors.  They  might  have  been  caused  by  the 
moisture  of  our  own  air  during  the  passage  of  the  light 
through  our  atmosphere.  In  order  to  remove  all  doubts,  he 
turned  the  spectroscope  to  the  moon,  which  was  low  down ; 
if  the  bands  of  the  spectrum  had  been  due  to  the  moisture 
of  our  air  they  would  have  been  more  clearly  seen  in  the 
spectrum  of  the  moon's  light,  but  they  were  wanting;  it  in- 
dicated that  the  vapor  of  water  was  in  the  atmosphere  of 
that  planet.  It  shows  the  planet  is  not  so  old  as  its  small- 
ness  would  lead  us  to  believe,  and  may  have  formed  itself 
later  than  the  earth,  being  placed  in  a  region  where  the 
formation  was  rather  difficult. 

Outside  of  Mars  we  come  to  the  asteroids  which  seem  to 
have  been  placed  in  a  condition  where  they  were  spoiled  at 
their  very  f  ormatioD  Mars,  coming  next  within  the 


84  OTHER   WORLDS   THAN   OURS. 

oids,  was  probably  subjected  to  the  same  conditions.  On« 
feature  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to.  You  see  the  signs 
of  glacial  action  all  around  there;  it  has  a  whitish  appear- 
ance, showing  the  planet  has  a  wide  glacial  region  where 
the  cold  must  be  intense.  On  account  of  the  prevailing 
cold,  Mars  seems  unfit  to  be  the  abode  of  life,  and  we  may 
say  with  certainty,  that  the  period  of  life  there,  is  shorter 
than  on  our  planet,  so  that  the  creatures  are  not  so  devel- 
oped as  here. 

In  passing  to  the  outer  family  of  planets  I  bring  argu- 
ments which  make  me  differ  from  the  way  in  which  they 
are  described  by  other  astronomers,  which  seems  natural, 
whereas  my  view  of  them  seems  sensational.  In  point  of 
fact  there  is  not  a  single  substance,  nothing  about  those 
planets,  which  corresponds  to  the  theory  that  they  are  orbs 
like  the  others.  Their  rotating  theories,  their  mass,  their 
density,  all  the  circumstances  of  the  planets  are  unlike  our 
earth.  Considering  the  enormous  size  of  Jupiter,  1230  times 
larger  than  our  earth,  and  his  powerful  mass  dragging  his  sub- 
stance continually  towards  the  centre,  we  should  expect  the 
planet  t">  be  as  dense  as  possible,  and  yet  it  has  only  one 
fourth  of  the  density  of  the  earth;  it  corresponds  with 
that  of  the  sun.  This  phenomena  can  be  explained  only  by 
an  intense  inherent  heat,  which  expands  the  atmosphere 
around  it.  After  the  cooling  of  this  planet,  when  it  comes 
to  a  density  equal  to  our  earth,  its  size  will  be  half  as  large 
as  its  present  disk,  and  the  clouds  surrounding  it  will 
be  reduced  to  one-third;  and  this  reduction  would  make 
the  apparent  brightness  of  the  planet  one-sixth  of  what  it 
shows  now  in  our  sky.  You  can  not  look  at  the  next  pic- 
ture without  feeling  that  the  atmosphere  must  be  very  deep 
in  which  those  planets  are.  That  shadow  you  see  there,  has 
a  diameter  of  2,000  miles;  the  cloud  masses  must  be  at  least, 
as  deep  as  the  diameter  of  that  deep  shadow.  But  if  they 
were  only  one  hundred  miles  deep,  the  pressure  at  the  bot- 
tom would  be  so  great  that  the  lower  atmosphere  would  bi 
much  denser  than  platinum. 

You  see  here  one  of  the  satellites  which  seemed  to 
enter  the  dis  3  of  the  planet  and  then  went  back;  yet  the 
mere  stopping  of  a  satellite  would  cause  it  to  be  vaporized. 


OTHER   WORLDS  THAN   OURS.  85 

It  could  not  have  gone  back.     We  can  explain  it  by  suppos- 
ing the  planet  to  be  enshrouded  by  deep  masses  of  clouds, 
a  portion  of  which  would  disappear  sometimes,  and  so  the 
outline  would  be  thrown  back  to  the  interior.     If  at  any 
time  the  outer  layer  of  clouds  could  be  dissipated  and  we 
could  see  the  lower  layer,  the  planet  would  appear  fl  it,  an  1 
to  some  observers,  parts  of  the  outlines  of  Jupiter  have  ap- 
peared flattened.     Those  who  possess  silver-lined  glasses-, 
should  try  to  use  the  glass  without  the  silvering;  it  would 
give  the  images  of  Jupiter  and  Venus  free  from  irradiation 
It  would  be  interesting  to  study  the  planet  with  reference  tc 
the  theories  I  am  dealing  with.     One  observer  in  France  Ins 
perceived  that  the  shadows  of  the  clouds  can  be  seen  pass- 
ing  through  the  atmosphere,  and  showing  how  deep  that  at- 
mosphere must  be.     If  we  dismiss  the  central  orb  of  Jupiter 
as  unable  to  have  life,  we  might  possibly  find  life  oa  his 
satellites.    They  have  an  orbit  of   8,000  miles.    The  two 
moons  of  Jupiter  on  the  left  are  as  large  as  our  moon,  and 
of  the  two  outside  his  mass,  one  is  larger.     You  notice  the 
curious  way  in  which  their  motions  are  arranged.     On  the 
left-hand  picture  you  see  them  in  a  straight  line,  two  on  one 
side  of  the  planet  and  one  on  the  other;  on  the  right  hand 
they  are  at  right  angles  to  each  other.     They  swing  around 
the  planet  like  the  hour-hand,  the  minute-hand,  and  the  sec- 
ond-hand of  a  clock,  and  when  Jupiter  has  reached  the  stage 
of  individual  life,  they  will  be  good  time  measurers.     Yet 
they  will  not  supply  the  planet  with   light,  as  Brewster 
thinks.     They  cannot  give  more  than  one-sixteenth  of  the 
light  we  get  from  the  full  moon,  although  Jupiter  can  pour 
much  light  and  heat  upon  them.     So  we  can  explain  the 
purpose  of  Jupiter  by  regarding  the  satellites  as  the  abode 
of  life  and  Jupiter  as  supplying  them  with  light  and  heat. 
In  Saturn's  history  one  thing  must  be  mentioned.    It  is  en- 
wrapped in  cloudy  masses,  raised  by  the  planet's  inherent 
heat,  and  you  see  here  a  line  surrounding  the  equator.     It  is 
on  the  planet's  own  disk  and  always  keeps  that  position. 
This  equatorial  belt  never  shifts  as  ours  does,  following  the 
sun  along  the  ecliptic.     Here  is  a  picture  illustrating  the 
way  in  which  the  planet  supplies  nther  worlds  with  light 
and  heat.    It  is  comparable  with  the '  solar  system  in  con- 


85  OTHER  WORLDS  THAN   OURS. 

density.  You  see  a  ring  and  eight  satellites.  The  satellites 
are  divided  into  two  families;  the  outer  family  and  one  clow 
in  the  centre  of  the  system,  just  as  in  our  sun. 

In  1877  Saturn  will  have  the  ring  placed  in  the  position  it 
has  on  this  picture,  and  we  can  observe  its  appearance  and 
the  satellites  around  it  as  described  by  Sir  Win.  Herschel. 
There  yoa  see  how  the  ring  is  passing  downwards.  The  time 
it  takes  to  pass  from  the  former  position  to  the  position  now 
shown,  is  seven  and  a-half  of  our  years,  during  which  it  hides 
a  large  portion  of  the  pi  anetys  surface.  This  ring  is  said  to 
be  composed  of  an  immense  number  of  minute  satellites. 
Brewster  talks  of  its  beauty  and  how  it  would  appear  as  a  i 
arc  of  light  to  the  inhabitants  of  Saturn,  but  he  forgets  that 
the  bright  ide  of  the  ring  is  the  same  side  as  the  hemisphere 
enjoying  the  summer.  In  winter  there  is  not  only  no  sup- 
ply of  heat  and  light  from  the  ring,  but  it  throws  a  black 
shadow  which  conceals  a  large  surface  of  the  planet  from 
the  rays  of  the  sun.  You  see  here  the  progressive  creeping 
of  the  black  shadow  over  the  planet,  hiding  parts  larger 
than  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth  in  extent,  and  it  goes  on 
to  the  last  of  those  views  and  keeps  those  parts  in  shadow 
for  more  than  two  years. 

In  the  family  traveling  around  Saturn,  we  have  regions 
which  may  be  the  abode  of  life,  but  according  to  the  theory 
brought  before  you,  the  shortness  of  life  on  those  small 
bodies,  compared  with  the  preceding  and  following  periods, 
the  chance  is  small,  and  we  may  altogether  reject  the  sup- 
position that  life  actually  exists  either  there  or  in  Neptune 
and  Uranus  ;  those  planets  being  so  far  from  the  sua  could 
only  be  supposed  to  have  preserved  enough  inherent  light 
and  heat  to  maintain  life. 

Turning  to  the  star  depths,  you  find  that  instead  of  dealing 
with  one  system,  you  may  see  in  the  heavens  sun  after  sun, 
each  the  centre  of  schemes  of  worlds.  Here  you  have  the 
Northern  Bear  with  his  family  of  stars  ;  some  of  those  stars 
viewed  with  the  telescope  are  exceedingly  small,  the  regions 
appearing  dark  to  the  unaided  eye  are  crowded  with  stars. 
Here  is  the  large  star  and  the  curve  of  stars  which  form  the 
constellation  of  the  Little  Bear.  Again  in  Cassiopaeia 
you  see  the  whole  space  crowded  with  stars,  and  yet  we 


OTHER  SUNS  THAN  OUBS.  87 

Using  here  the  results  obtained  by  a  small  telescope.  Now 
another  picture  shows  hundreds  of  thousands  of  stars  at 
once  ;  every  point  is  a  centre  of  a  system  in  which  you  have 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  stars.  Increasing  the  power  ol 
the  telescope,  taking  Herschel's  telescope,  you  see  21,000,000 
of  stars  in  this  part  of  the  heavens,  and  passing  to  Rosse's 
telescope,  the  number  increases  to  hundreds  of  millions,  and 
you  have  no  more  the  small  chance  you  had  before,  but  mul- 
tiplied chances  of  the  existence  of  millions  of  inhabited 
worlds  ;  for  every  planet  has  a  period  of  life,  and  millions 
of  orbs  are  the  abode  of  life  now. 

I  proceed  to  consider  the  lesson  of  this  day  as  our  study  of 
science  increases,  we  perceive  that  the  domain  of  the  un- 
known has  a  wider  extent  than  the  domain  of  the  known. 
We  find  still  greater  mysteries  by  the  very  expansion  of  our 
knowledge.  We  are  constantly  removing  the  obstacles  on 
our  way,  clearing  it  and  hoping  to  come  to  a  satisfactory 
Interpretation  of  the  facts.  But  as  we  go  deeper  down,  we 
come  to  regions  of  still  greater  mysteries. 


FOURTH    LECTURE. 


SUNS  THAN  OURS. 


LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  At  the  close  of  my  last  lec- 
ture I  spoke  of  the  fact  that  when  we  look  at  any  planet,  we 
cannot  think  that  now  is  the  time  the  planet  is  inhabited. 
The  chances  are  against  that  being  so,  but  looking  at  the 
star  depths,  we  see  in  imagination  millions  of  inhabited 
worlds  at  the  same  time.  I  must  not  fail  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  fact,  that  the  lesson  told  by  the  stars  is  that  of 
death.  We  see  there  millions  of  inhabited  worlds,  but  hun- 


88  OTHER  SUNS  THAN  OURS. 

dreds  of  millions  are  not  inhabited,  either  because  they  have 
not  reached  the  time  of  lite,  or  possibly  they  have  passed  it. 
So  that  if  the  heavens  present  to  us  a  scene  of  multiplied 
iife,  they  also  present  a  scene  of  multiplied  death.  Korean 
we  escape  that  view,  so  painful  to  many,  by  taking  the  theory 
of  Brewster,  because  there  is  nothing  more  certain  than  that 
life  has  a  limited  period,  a  beginning  and  an  end,  and  if  at 
this  moment,  all  the  worlds  are  either  inhabited  by  living 
creatures,  or  are  subserving  life,  then  we  must  look  back  to 
the  period  when  life  began,  and  the  period  in  the  future,  when 
life  will  cease  to  find  a  limit,  not  in  a  section  of  creation,  but 
throughout  the  whole  Universe.  Whereas,  according  to  my 
theory,  we  have  life  all  the  time,  now  in  this  family,  now  in 
another  family  of  worlds,  all  the  time  worlds  are  inhabited. 
We  see  in  the  star  depths  multiplied  life  ;  we  recognize 
them  as  centers  and  supports  of  life.  Here  I  must  touch 
upon  a  consideration  which  occurred  to  me  when  looking  at 
the  star  depths.  Fifteen  years  ago  I  was  living  in  Scotland, 
at  the  birthplace  of  Burns,  and  used  to  see  a  faint  fire  burn- 
ing on  the  distant  shore.  No  sound  reached  me,  nothing 
gave  sign  of  energy,  but  I  knew  there  was  a  furnace  fire. 
The  desire  for  studying  astronomy  coming  to  me,  I  pur- 
chased a  small  telescope  for  studying  terrestrial  objects,  and 
I  turned  .at  night  the  telescope  towards  those  parts,  I  could 
see  the  flames,  and  imagined  I  could  catch  the  roaring  sound 
of  the  fire,  and  from  time  to  time  I  saw  figures  of  men 
passing  there.  So  I  had  the  clearest  evidence  of  intense 
energy,- when  all  that  could  be  seen  to  the  naked  eye  was  a 
dull  fire  at  night.  And  that  feeling  has  been  intensified 
when  in  my  travels  I  saw  fire  far  away,  which  conveyed  no 
sign,  but  imagination  told  me  processes  were  at  work  there 
representing  energy. 

Looking  at  the  star  depths,  we  see  something  like  that  fire 
supporting  life  in  Jthe  worlds  around.  We  cannot  see  any 
real  trace  of  life,  nor  can  we  hear  the  sounds,  they  don't 
reach  us  ;  but  imagination,  based  on  scientific  facts,  assures 
us  that  there  we  see  the  representation  of  the  most  stupen- 
dous process  at  work,  the  worlds  circling  around  it.  There 
was  once  a  doubt  based  on  this  point.  It  was  thought  the 
st&rs  were  mere  torch-like  flames,  incapable  of  ruling  and 


OTHER  SUNS  THAN  OURS.  89 

moving  world's  like  those  circling  around  the  sun,  differing 
from  the  sun  as  this  gaslight  differs  from  an  incandescent 
mass  of  matter,  giving  the  same  light  and  having  the  same 
size.  But  we  know  that  flames  could  not  continue  to  burn 
without  any  supply.  It  is  only  a  supply  of  gas  from  another 
place,  where  large  masses  are  collected,  that  enables  the  gas 
to  burn,  else  the  flames  would  die  out. 

It  was  found  that  those  world's  were  masses  of  glowing 
matter  shining  through  absorbing  vapors  that  they  had  the 
power  of  contracting,  of  drawing  inward  their  mass  and  that 
power  corresponds  to  the  heat  they  emit.  In  other  words, 
the  heat  corresponds  to  the  mechanical  equivalent  of  the 
process  of  contraction. 

Then  we  could  determine  a  stars  distance  and  infer  from 
the  quantity  of  light  it  emits,  the  surface  it  has,  we  can  de- 
termine the  absolute  mass  of  that  centre. 

In  a  former  course  of  lectures,  I  told  about  the  evidence 
we  have  as  to  the  size  and  the  mass  of  stars.  The  nearest 
star,  called  Alpha  in  the  Centaur,  is  210, 000  times  as  far  away 
as  the  sun,  and  if  our  sun  was  there,  it  would  be  40,000,000,- 
000  less  brilliant.  Its  lustre  is  three  times  as  great  as  the 
lustre  that  would  be  given  out  by  our  sun  at  that  distance, 
so  that  if  the  surface  of  that  star  is  of  the  same  intrinsic 
brightness  as  the  sun,  if  a  square  mile  of  the  sun's  surface 
gives  as  much  light  and  heat  as  a  square  mile  of  the  surface 
of  the  star,  that  star  shines  three  times  as  brightly.  If  you 
proceed  from  that  to  determine  the  diameter  of  the  star,  it 
will  exceed  our  sun  more  than  17  to  10,  its  diameter  must  be 
4,250,000  miles. 

If  we  proceed  to  the  star  Sirius,  which  shines  four  times 
as  brightly,  we  see  an  orb  far  exceeding  our  sun.  If  my 
assumption  be  true,  and  every  square  mile  of  Sirius  gives  the 
same  amount  of  light  and  heat  as  the  square  mile  of  the  sun, 
its  volume  must  exceed  our  sun  about  2,000  times.  The 
astronomers  have  not  been  able  to  determine  what  its  exact 
distance  is,  yet  we  think  that  the  surface  of  Sirius  gives 
more  light  and  heat  than  the  surface  of  the  sun. 

Now  we  have  to  consider  the  evidence  we  have  of  their 
being  centers  of  systems  of  glowing  matter  like  our  sun.  I 
am  dealing  with  evidence  now,  though  formerly  I  dealt  with 


40  OTBER  SUNS  THAN  OURS. 

analogies,  and  the  greater  part  of  this  lecture  will  be  given 
to  matters  altogether  new,  the  illustrations  being  all  n?w, 
and  we  will  come  to  the  latest  discoveries.  In  the  flrst 
place,  I  allude  to  a  mistake  made  by  Balfour  Stuart  in  his 
work  called  "The  Unseen  Universe,"  which  though  dry,  ia 
well  worth  studying.  In  dealing  with  Sirius,  he  makes  a 
mistake  affecting  all  our  conclusions.  He  says  that  hydrogen 
is  the  only  gas  present  there,  and  that  no  other  elements 
have  been  seen,  yet  we  have  evidence  that  all  the  other  gases 
exist  there.  Still  the  lines  of  hydrogen  are  stronger  in 
Sirius  than  in  the  sun ;  he  seems  to  belong  to  a  class  of  stars 
that  have  a  deep  atmosphere  of  hydrogen,  and  as  we  may 
assume  that  hydrogen  is  a  part  of  their  atmosphere  that  ex- 
tends furthest,  the  other  ingredients  of  the  atmosphere  must 
be  equally  extensive,  and  so  we  have  the  evidence  of  its 
greater  size.  It  is  the  same  thing  as  in  regard  to  the  oceans; 
the  smaller  planets  have  the  smaller  oceans.  Here  is  a  pic- 
ture showing  the  evidence  we  have  as  to  the  constitution  of 
the  sun  by  means  of  the  messenger  of  light  coming  across 
the  depths  of  space.  Below  we  have  another  picture  show- 
ing the  way  the  astronomers  determine  the  presence  of 
various  elements  in  the  stars.  You  see  in  the  sun'a*spectrurn 
a  number  of  bright  lines,  of  which  some  correspond  and 
some  do  not  with  the  dark  lines  below,  which,  represent  the 
spectrum  of  the  star.  If  the  lines  correspond,  we  infer  that 
the  elements  exist  in  the  star,  if  they  don't  correspond,  we 
can  only  say  there  is  no  evidence  of  its  existence.  Another 
picture  shows  how  Dr.  Huggins  and  Dr.  Miller  applied  this 
analysis  to  the  stars  and  compared  the  different  lines  with 
those  belonging  to  certain  particular  chemical  elements. 
You  see  some  short  lines  which  correspond  to  the  bright 
lines  in  the  preceding  picture,  and  are  marked  with  different 
letters.  They  represent  the  elements  corresponding  to  those 
letters,  and  show  that  those  elements  exist  in  the  sun.  Aide- 
baran  contains  nine  elements  familiar  to  us,  bismuth, 
sodium,  antimony,  magnesium,  iron,  mercury,  calcium,  and 
so  forth.  The  spectroscopic  analysis  gives  us  means  of  dis- 
tinguishing the  different  construction  of  stars.  Here  you 
see  the  star  Betelgent.  You  see  ia  the  spectrum  of  that  star 
no  line  corresponding  to  the  letter  H,  marked  on  the  spec 


OTHER  SUNS  THAN  OURS.  41 

tram  above.  We  don't  infer  that  hydrogen  does  not  exist 
there,  we  only  infer  it  can  not  be  detected  there,  either  be- 
cause hydrogen  is  low  down  or  has  not  come  to  the  glowing 
condition  it  has  when  greatly  heated.  In  studying  a  part  of 
the  auk  s  surface,  we  find  that  the  hydrogen  absorbs  the 
matter  below,  which  is  relatively  hot,  and  the  lines  of  hydro- 
gen appear  bright.  Here  you  have  the  spectrum  of  the  star 
which  shone  out  in  the  constellation  of  the  northern  crown 
in  1866.  Those  lines  of  hydrogen  give  the  chief  part  of  the 
stars  lustre.  The  star  was  covered  with  glowing  flames, 
probably  owing  to  the  downfall  of  meteoric  matter  or  some 
change  in  its  constituent  elements.  On  this  picture  you  have 
the  two  spectra  of  the  blue  and  the  orange  components  of 
the  double  star  called  Alberion  in  the  Swan.  The  question 
arises  whether  those  colors  are  inherent  or  due  to  absorp- 
tion. There  are  two  ways  in  which  a  light  may  appear 
colored.  There  may  be  the  inherent  color,  as  in  the  light 
used  in  our  theatres,  or  as  in  the  railway  signals,  it  may 
be  produced  by  colored  glass.  By  means  of  the  spectrum 
we  see  that  in  the  stars  the  particular  color  is  caused  by 
absorption.  Here  we  see  dark  bands  in  the  part  represent- 
ing yellow  and  orange  light,  which  are  cut  off,  and  there 
is  a  superabundance  of  blue  and  violet.  In  the  other  spec- 
trum you  see  an  abundance  of  dark  lines  in  the  blue  and 
violet  parts,  and  a  sparingness  of  them  in  the  yellow  and 
orange  parts.  I  met,  some  time  ago,  Dr.  Louis  Rutherford, 
who  told  me  that  in  taking  photographs  of  the  stars,  the 
colors  of  the  stars  affected  the  result.  Here  is  an  orange 
and  blue  star,  in  which  we  know,  when  looked  at  through 
the  telescope,  the  orange  star  is  the  largest,  and  the  blue 
star  is  comparatively  faint,  but  in  the  photographic  picture 
the  blue  looks  almost  like  the  orange.  The  blue  light  ia 
that  by  which  the  photographic  result  is  chiefly  obtained. 
Having  thus  learned  that  the  stars  are  real  suns,  we  must 
study  how  they  are  spread  through  the  depths  of  space. 
Astronomers  are  engaged  in  taking  the  exact  position  of 
stars  in  relation  to  the  earth;  their  observations  are  impor- 
tant, indeed,  lying  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  practical 
application  of  astronomy.  But  the  order  which  the  stars 
keep  in  space  is  seldom  mentioned,  and  yet  it  is  a  question 


42  OTHER  SUNS  THAN  OURS. 

of  great  interest,  being  connected  with  the  problem  of  the 
origin  of  the  Universe.  Man  is  not  satisfied  to  go  back  to 
the  nebulous  matter ;  he  asks  where  the  nebulous  matter 
comes  from.  If,  as  Balf our  Stuart  tells  us,  there  was  a  time 
when  space  was  occupied  by  a  fluid,  out  of  which  atoms 
were  formed,  and  if  you  take  that  as  the  origin  of  the 
Universe,  the  arrangement  of  the  stars  in  space  will  give 
you  some  notion  about  it.  If  you  can  tell  what  the  shapes 
of  the  groups  are,  you  can  see  how  the  fluid  gradually  de- 
veloped itself  into  nebulous  matter. 

A  picture  will  show  the  theory  of  Kepler,  who  asserted 
that  the  solar  system  was  *t  the  centre  of  the  Universe.  It 
was  an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  teachings  of  astronomers 
with  the  supposed  description  of  the  origin  of  the  Universe 
in  Genesis.  He  affirmed  that  the  rays  of  the  sun  were 
taught  by  a  shell  enclosing  the  stars,  and  being  led  astray 
by  a  series  of  numerical  calculations,  he  said  that  the  thick- 
ness of  the  shell  amounted  to  seventy  miles. 

Then  came  the  theory  of  Wright,  attributed  to  Sir  Win. 
Herschel.  You  see  here  across  the  milky  way,  a  great 
number  of  stars,  and  you  see  it  divided  in  one  part.  By 
studying  the  stars  with  a  telescope,  he  was  led  to  believe 
they  were  spread  all  through  space,  and  the  whole  stellar 
system  had  the  shape  of  a  flat  disk,  cloven  in  the  direction 
of  the  zone  of  the  milky  way.  You  see  galaxies  of  stars 
spread  over  the  space  which  represent  the  nebulae. 

Another  picture  illustrates  the  theory  of  Lambert;  it  shows 
that  our  stellar  system  is  a  cloven  flat  disk,  formed  by  spher- 
ical clusters  of  stars.  You  see  clouds  of  stars  in  some 
places.  He  was,  doubtless,  led  to  compare  them  to  what 
we  recognize  when  we  look  at  the  heavens  and  see  the  milky 
way  on  a  Summer  night.  We  see  the  clouds  scattered  over, 
some  branching  off,  some  of  them  converging;  they  form  a 
confused  mass,  nodules  of  light  being  projected  one  upon  the 
other,  and  presenting  a  cloudy  surface.  He  said  the  motley 
aspect  of  the  milky  way  results  from  the  clouds  of  stars. 

Wm.  Struve,  in  Germany,  rejects  the  theory  of  the  stellar 
system  having  the  shape  of  a  disk.  He  says  there  is  an  inter- 
mixture of  large  and  small  stars  in  the  milky  way,  which 
has  no  limits. 


OtHEB  SXJN9  THAN  OURS.  43 

Passing  now  to  Wm.  Herschel's  theory  on  this  subject,  I 
call  your  attention  to  the  mistakes  made  in  describing  his 
method  of  gauging  the  stars;  the  two  methods  are  mixed  as 
if  they  were  one,  and  yet  nothing  is  more  unlike  than  these 
two  methods.  They  require  no  profound  study;  his  mind 
was  led  to  simplifying  methods.  At  first  he  directed  the  same 
telescope  towards  different  parts  of  the  heavens.  By  count- 
ing the  number  of  stars  in  each  locality,  he  thought  he 
should  be  able  to  tell  the  shape  of  the  stellar  system;  to  tell 
how  far  off  the  boundary  of  the  system  lies  in  different 
directions.  But  he  found  spaces  which  seemed  void  of 
stars,  the  stars  were  not  spread  continuously,  so  he  changed 
the  method  of  gauging  and  directed  telescopes  of  different 
sizes  to  the  same  part  of  heaven,  using  one  telescope  till  the 
cloud  of  stars  he  perceived  would  revolve,  then  increasing 
the  size  till  he  could  penetrate  to  the  limits  of  that  region 
of  space.  He  failed  again;  and  here  I  will  touch  upon  a 
mistake  Herschel  made.  When  he  invented  this  second 
method,  he  was  eighty  years  of  age.  A  little  before  his 
health  broke  down,  he  wanted  that  mental  versatility  he 
had  shown  up  to  his  advanced  age,  and  he  made  a  mistake 
in  thinking  that  by  using  greater  telescopes  in  studying  the 
same  space,  he  was  all  the  time  resolving  clouds  farther  away. 
The  true  theory  is,  that  when  he  thought  he  was  penetrating 
further  down,  he  scrutinized  the  depth  of  the  same  region. 
Many  stars  were  spread,  the  large  and  the  small  ones  inter- 
mingled, and  he  saw  the  peculiarities  of  one  cluster  of  stars. 
He  was  studying  the  stars  that  were  really  small  and  not 
further  away. 

HerschePs  results  having  shown  that  both  his  methods  of 
gauging  cannot  be  relied  upon;  the  true  method  is  to  com- 
bine both  these  processes,  to  study  the  whole  heavens  with 
one  and  the  same  telescope,  and  combine  the  results  into 
star  charts,  with  increasing  power  to  penetrate  further  and 
further  through  the  star  depths,  and  comparing  the  charts  to 
come  to  the  truth.  Here  you  see  the  northern  part  of  the 
milky  way  divided  in  two  parts  and  streams  of  stars  be- 
tween them.  Another  picture  shows  the  complicated  sys- 
tem of  the  stars  in  the  milky  way.  You  see  them  divided 
in  branches,  crossed  by  dark  regions  in  some  parts,  scatter- 


44  OTHER  SUNS  THAN  OURS. 

ed  stars  in  others.  Here  we  have  the  projective  portions  of 
the  milky  way  well  defined.  In  the  upper  part  you  see  a 
sudden  change  of  brightness.  It  is  taken  from  the  work  of 
Sir  John  Herschel,  called  his  "Southern  Observations." 
This  other  picture  shows  us  what  we  ought  not  to  do.  We 
ought  not  to  have  the  straggling  figures  of  the  constellations 
that  spoil  the  maps.  You  see  how  the  figure  of  a  ship  in- 
troduced here  spoils  the  evidence  that  may  be  given  by  the 
arrangement  of  stars.  See  how  the  stars  are  gathered 
together  on  the  right  hand,  and  scarcely  any  on  the  left. 
This  is  full  of  interest;  it  brings  us  toward  the  true  meaning 
of  stars,  but  it  is  lost  when  our  attention  is  called  to  bears 
and  ships,  etc.  I  endeavored  to  overcome  this  imperfection 
by  dividing  a  sphere  more  uniformly.  You  see  on  this  pic- 
ture the  way  I  arranged  them  in  dodecahedrons.  There  is 
a  central  pentagon  and  five  other  pentagons  touching  on  the 
central ;  the  projections  of  every  pentagon,  with  its  stars, 
are  falling  in  the  depressions  of  the  other  pentagon.  You 
notice  the  way  in  which  the  meridians  of  this  chart  appear 
without  distortion.  Where  there  is  richness  of  stars  in  one 
part,  and  poverty  in  another,  you  may  rely  it  is  true.  I  will 
mention  that  in  the  maps  published  by  the  Society  for  the 
Advancement  of  Useful  Knowledge,  under  the  direction  of 
Sir  John  Lubbock,  the  center  differs  from  the  angles  in  the 
ratio  of  one  to  five,  whereas  here  the  outer  part  differs  from 
the  other  part  as  thirteen  to  fourteen,  it  is  hardly  observ- 
able, and  so  these  outlines  show  how,  originally,  the  stars 
were  spread. 

Now  we  pass  to  another  series  of  maps  showing  tne  way 
the  stars  are  gathered  in  some  parts  of  the  heavens.  "X  ou 
eee  them  spread  out  like  the  branches  of  a  tree.  Sometimes 
you  see  two  or  three  streams  extending  from  a  star;  some- 
times they  are  spiral  groups.  These  maps  show  you  the 
stars  of  the  fourth  magnitude,  seen  by  the  naked  eye. 
You  see  a  great  lack  of  stars  in  one  part,  whereas  in  the 
Northern  part  of  the  milky  way  the  stars  of  the  fourth  order 
are  rich  in  number;  all  along  the  milky  way  the  stars  are 
richly  spread.  In  Aldebaran  we  have  a  poverty-stricken  re- 
gion, even  if  we  pass  beyond  the  compass  of  the  naked  eye. 
Here  in  the  Southern  hemisphere,  observe  the  poverty  on 


OTHER  SUNS  THAN  OURS  45 

the  right  hand  as  compared  with  the  central  portion  in  the 
Magellanic  cloud,  and  that  part  of  the  milky  way  where  the 
dark  rift  extends.  Now  we  will  pass  to  the  telescopic  stars. 
Every  one  of  these  stars  has  been  observed,  their  place  in 
ascension  and  declination  have  been  studied,  and  so  they 
have  been  formed  into  charts.  Every  one  of  the  atars  is 
a  known  star.  It  was  by  means  of  such  a  chart  that  the 
star  that  flashed  in  the  Northern  crown  was  found  to  be  an 
old  friend.  If  charts  of  this  kind  had  been  wanting,  there 
would  be  no  evidence  to  show  whether  it  was  an  old  or  a 
new  star.  You  see  the  Dipper  and  Cassiopeia,  then  the  rich 
part  of  the  milky  way  in  the  constellation  of  the  Swan  and 
those  bright  stars  forming  the  cross  in  the  Swan,  the  beauti- 
ful star,  Alberion,  and  the  region  where  Sir  William  Her- 
schel  pointed  out  32,000  stars  with  his  telescope,  eighteen 
inches  in  aperture.  Here  again  we  have  the  evidence  of 
clouds  in  space.  We  have  to  study  them  carefully  before 
determining  where  one  cloud  overlaps  another.  This  pic- 
ture shows  the  way  in  which  those  dark  spaces  are  spread, 
and  how  clusters  and  clouds  of  stars  impinge  on  the  dark 
space.  In  the  constellation  of  the  Eagle  you  have  this 
strange  arrangement  of  stars  floating  inward  toward  the  va- 
cant space.  Here  you  have  the  cluster  of  the  Pleiades,  the 
Aldebaran  and  the  Polar  star  of  the  Little  Bear.  When  you 
combine  all  those  maps  you  get  the  picture  of  the  whole 
heavens  with  a  telescope  two  and  one  half  inches  in  aper ] 
ture.  I  was  occupied  four  hundred  hours  in  charting  those 
stars.  I  made  the  stars  very  minute  so  as  to  have  room  for 
all,  and  though  I  was  rery  careful,  the  result  was  not  io 
striking  as  I  intended  it  to  be — I  have  strengthened  it  since 
that  time.  When  we  leave  the  milky  way  we  see  a  greater 
uniformity  and  a  greater  poverty  in  the  distribution  of  stars. 
5Tou  see  how  the  small  stars  mark  out  the  shape  of  the 
milky  way  Here  you  have  the  whole  of  the  heavens  on 
one  m^p.  The  best  photographic  result  was  used  by  me  in 
Springfield,  and,  being  the  last  picture  shown,  was  probably 
left  in  the  lantern.  The  324,000  stars  cannot  be  seen  well 
here.  In  the  next  lecture  I  hope  to  get  the  picture  and  show 
it  to  you  again.  It  is  necessary,  in  order  to  satisfy  you  of  the 
evidence  that  the  milky  way,  as  brought  into  view,  there  ii 


46  OTHER  SUNS  THAN   OURS. 

a  stream  of  all  the  bright  and  small  stars  intermixed. 
Now  you  have  before  yon  a  map  indicating  the  motions 
of  the  stars.  Those  stars  in  the  constellation  of  the  Twins 
have  ai-rows  attached  to  them  indicating  the  amount  of  their 
motion  in  30,000  years.  I  must  mention  that  DeMarion  bor- 
rowed from  me  the  manner  of  indicating  the  change  of 
place  of  the  stars.  It  is  a  simple  thing  to  attach  an  arrow 
to  a  star;  anyone  might  do  it,  only  I  don't  want  it  to  appear 
as  if  I  appropriated  this  method  from  him;  I  mention  it  in 
self-defense.  Those  arrows  indicate  the  diiection  and  the 
rate  of  motion.  You  see  them  moving  slower  or  faster  in 
different  directions.  By  observing  them  you  can  dislin 
guish  one  star  cloud  from  another.  Here  in  the  constella- 
tion of  the  Great  Bear,  you  see  five  of  the  seven  stars  mov- 
ing in  one  direction  and  apparently  at  the  same  rate,  while 
the  two  others  have  an  opposite  direction;  those  stars  seem 
to  belong  to  a  drifting  system.  They  are  approaching  and 
receding  continually.  They  have  the  same  spectrum  as  the 
bright  star  Sirius.  You  see  there  a  strongly  marked  line  of 
hydrogen.  Dr.  Huggins  applied  a  certain  method  for  dis- 
tinguishing those  motions.  The  application  of  that  method 
to  determine  the  recess  or  approach  depends,  on  the  princi. 
pie  that  light  comes  to  us  by  waves.  Suppose  a  sailor  crossing 
the  sea:  as  he  meets  the  waves  they  eeem  to  pass  more 
quickly  than  if  they  were  at  rest,  their  crests  are  closer  to- 
gether and  their  sound  is  more  acute;  if  they  are  receding, 
the  sound  is  more  grave.  When  you  pass  a  train  where  the 
bell  is  sounding,  the  sound  seems  to  increase  as  you  ap- 
proach. When  you  pass  you  hear  a  certain  detonation  and 
ut  last  when  passed,  a  lower  tone.  The  law  is  the  same 
when  applied  to  light  and  color.  When  the  waves  are 
uearer  together,  the  blue  part  of  the  spectrum  predominates* 
you  know  the  star  is  approaching.  If  it  is  receding,  the 
crests  are  longer,  and  it  shifts  toward  the  red.  When  I 
made  the  prediction  that  those  stars  in  the  Great  Bear  be- 
longed to  a  drifting  family,  I  knew  Dr.  Huggins  was  apply- 
ing this  method,  and  my  prophecy  was  verified.  Aud  now 
this  mode  of  recognizing  recession  and  approach,  together 
with  the  spectroscopic  analysis,  gives  us  another  means 
of  bringing  the  stars  into  collocation. 


OTHER   rtl'NS    THAN   OURS.  47 

Seeing  all  these  groups  and  clouds  and  clusters  and 
branches  cf  stars  spread  throughout  infinite  space,  we  must 
put  aside  all  the  ideas  of  uniform  arrangement  in  the  Uni- 
verse. But  in  the  midst  of  this  inconceivable  variety  of 
worlds,  let  us  hope  that  we  may  be  able  to  ascertain  the  way 
in  which  those  worlds  are  spread,  in  carrying  a  series  of  re- 
searches and  mapping  the  stars  as  we  see  them  with  tele- 
scopes from  twelve  to  thirty  inches  in  diameter,  and  now 
after  we  have  tried  to  recognize  the  star  depth,  containing 
millions  of  millions  of  stars — centers  of  worlds,  let  us  con- 
sider the  mystery  brought  before  us.  We  see  the  fullness  of 
space  and  while  there  is  abundance  of  life  throughout  the  in- 
numerable stars,  there  is  still  more  abundant  death.  In 
prc touting  before  you  the  fact  that  the  stars  without  life, 
supersede  so  much  the  scene  of  life,  we  may  hav  given  the 
Universe  a  melancholy  meaning.  We  see,  in  imagination, 
whole  classes  of  stars,  where  death  has  passed  over,  and  the 
f  uiure  of  the  Universe  presenting  the  same  death.  But  it  is 
the  small  extent  of  our  knowledge  which  gives  that  meaning 
t •)  what  we  see  in  the  Universe.  If  we  knew  the  reality ,  in- 
stead of  seeing  a  small  part  of  the  Universe,  we  should  find 
a  meaning  that  would  agree  with  our  ideas  of  an  almighty 
power.  It  is  not  with  less  reverence,  but  with  greater  rev- 
erence for  the  Universe  and  for  that  power  that  works  in 
and  through  the  Universe  that  we  must  strengthen  our  hope. 

Let  knowledge  grow  ever  more  and  more, 

Let  more  of  revereoice  in  113  dwell. 

That  mind  and  soul,  according  well, 
Might  make  one  music  as  before, 
But  vaster ! 


48  THE  GREAT   MYSTERIES   OF   TI1E   UXIVBRBB. 

FIFTH    LECTURE. 

The  Great  Mysteries  of  the  Universe, 


There  are  two  mistakes  very  commonly  made  in  speaking 
of  the  mysteries  of  the  Universe,  which  have  very  opposite 
effects.  One  is  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  a  question  is 
necessarily  as  mysterious  as  it  appears  to  be.  Often  by  some 
change  in  our  mode  of  viewing  it,  we  find  a  great  simplifica- 
tion may  come  in.  The  other  is  the  mistake  of  supposing 
that  because  we  have  found  the  explanation  of  one  part  of 
the  mystery,  the  mystery  is  cleared  up;  whereas  we  know  that 
usually  the  explanation  of  a  mystery  brings  with  it  a  greater 
mystery. 

The  mysteries  I  have  to  deal  with  to-night  are  related  to 
astronomy. 

The  ancients  were  led  early  to  discover  those  mysteries, 
but  they  attempted  great  simplicity  in  explaining  them;  they 
took  the  natural  interpretation  of  what  they  saw  before 
them.  Soon,  however,  they  were  lost  amidst  the  complica- 
tions that  arose  from  their  simple  mode  of  viewing  matters. 
They  took  the  earth  as  a  flat  surface — the  heavens  as  a  tent 
spread  over  it — it  was  the  most  natural  way.  Then  they 
saw  the  stars,  their  advances  and  retrogradatious,  and  they 
found  those  motions  could  not  be  explained  by  their  simple 
way  of  viewing  the  Universe.  They  found  that  in  traveling 
around  the  Universe,  instead  of  the  heavens  being  carried 
around  the  earth,  the  axis  of  rotation  was  continually  chang- 
ing; they  had  to  form  new  hypotheses,  still  leaving  the  mat- 
ter unexplained.  Still  greater  was  the  difficulty  when  they 
p  issed  from  the  stars  to  the  planets.  They  found  them  trav- 
eling backward  and  forward,  advancing,  retrograding,  stand- 
ing still.  They  put  the  earth  at  the  centre  of  the  Universe, 
and  thought  all  motions  could  be  explained  that  way ;  but 
instead  of  an  explanation,  confusion  arose  from  the  errone- 
ous centre  they  took. 


THE  GREAT  MYSTERIES  OF  THE  UNIVERSE.  4fc 

The  motion  of  the  planets,  as  supposed  by  the  ancients, 
will  be  shown,  and  you  will  see  how  the  old  explanation, 
which  seemed  so  natural,  brought  great  confusion;  yet  it  is 
common  to  find,  even  in  our  day,  people  who  think  that  the 
old  explanation  of  the  motions  of  the  planets  had  some  truth 
in  it.  We  are  sure,  however,  that  there  is  no  other  way  to 
explain  that  motion,  than  by  taking  our  present  center  of 
observation. 

Tou  see  here  the  motions  of  the  different  planets  forming 
various  loops.  The  Venus  loop,  the  Mars  loop,  and  the  last 
one,  the  loop  of  Saturn.  This  other  picture  represents  the 
various  systems.  You  have  there  the  Ptolemaic  system  with 
the  earth  at  the  center.  Another  picture  shows  how  far  it  is 
from  introducing  simplicity;  you  see  the  curves  that  those 
two  planets,  Mars  and  Venus,  should  have  to  trace,  notice 
those  interlacing  loops.  If  all  the  planets  were  introduced 
there  would  be  still  greater  complexity. 

Seeing  those  mysteries  of  the  stars,  realizing  that  the  plan- 
ets had  the  power,  not  only  of  advancing,  but  of  checking 
their  course  and  retrograding,  it  was  natural  for  the  astrono- 
mers to  think  that  the  stars  rule  the  acts  and  the  fate  of 
men.  And  so  their  astronomical  researches  were  associated 
with  the  belief  in  astroiogy,  and  it  remained  so  very  long, 
even  till  after  the  telescope  was  discovered. 

Here  you  have  one  of  the  great  buildings  erected  by  ancient 
men  for  advancing  the  science  of  the  Egyptian  astrology. , 
Prof.  Smith  has  advanced  the  theory  that  the  pyramids  wer& 
ejected  by  architects  who  thought  they  were  endowed  with 
the  knowledge  by  divine  revelation,  and  with  the  object  to 
record  that  knowledge.  But  we  all  know  about  the  ancients 
teaches  us  that  they  would  never  have  devoted  such  an 
amount  of  money  and  labor  for  any  other  purpose  than  to 
advance  knowledge.  You  remember  the  story  in  Layard's 
book  of  Nineveh.  He  was  boring  some  Oriental  chief 
about  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  the  chief  answered:  "  What 
does  it  matter  what  way  a  planet  passes?  In  God's  name  let 
it  be  so."  That  is  the  way  in  which  Oriental  nations  view 
these  abstruse  matters;  and  I  think  the  purpose  for  which 
these  buildings  were  erected,  was  to  give  the  means  of  prc. 
dieting  the  future  of  the  king  and  their  families. 


50  THE  GREAT   MYSTERIES   OF   THE   UNIVBBSK. 

Another  building  shows  conclusively  that  the  builders  of 
the  pyramids  had  no  acquaintance  with  one  of  the  phenom- 
ena of  o;\r  system,  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes.  See  this 
passage  opening  towards  the  Northern  face  of  the  pyramid; 
it  has  a  Northern  slope,  showing  it  was  directed  towards  the 
polar  star  of  that  time — Alpha  in  the  Dragon.  It  was 
erected  with  the  view  that  the  Polar  Star  in  making  it* 
passage  underneath  the  heavens  could  always  be  observed 
here.  In  every  one  of  the  pyramids  of  Gizeh,  you  see  this 
passage  directed  to  the  Pole  Star.  It  is  evident  that  the  erec- 
tion of  these  buildings  was  due  to  the  belief  of  the  influence 
exercised  by  the  stars  on  the  fate  of  men  and  nations.  They 
imagined  that  by  observing  the  distribution  and  the  motions 
of  stars  they  might  ascertain  the  true  laws  governing  human 
life,  and  predict  confidently,  the  future  of  mankind. 

A  picture  will  show  how  the  dragon  was  placed  at  that 
time.  The  star  in  the  tail  of  the  Dragon,  called  Alpha,  has 
lost  a  great  part  of  its  splendor  within  two  hundred  years. 
In  the  picture  before  you,  representing  the  Egyptian  plani- 
sphere, you  can  see  the  Dragon  with  the  Polar  Star.  At  the 
present  time  the  Little  Bear  has  taken  its  place.  And  here  I 
will  touch  on  the  curious  fact  that  there  is  evidence  that  this 
position  of  the  Dragon,  as  the  central  point  of  the  heavens, 
is  referred  to  by  Homer.  Many  of  the  lines  of  both  his  po- 
ems are  astrological.  On  the  shield  of  Achilles,  he  places 
all  the  constellations  which  one  would  not  expect  to  find  on  the 
shield  of  a  hero.  Among  others  we  find  the  Dragon,  "There 
in  the  central  shield  with  eyes  retorted  and  gleaming  with 
flre."  This  description  of  the  shield  of  Achilles  was  the  de- 
scription of  a  temple,  and  we  notice  in  Homer,  that  when 
imagination  cannot  serve  him,  he  uses  memory  instead  of 
extemporizing. 

Here  you  see  an  Egyptian  temple  containing  the  Egyptian 
zodiac — the  Bow,  the  Twins,  the  Crab,  the  Lion,  the  Virgin, 
the  Scales,  the  Fishes  with  glittering  tails,  and  soon  we  find 
also  in  the  Bible  the  evidence  of  a  connection  with  the  astro, 
logical  system  of  the  Egyptians.  Here  you  see  the  seven 
planets,  at  the  seven  points  of  a  star,  arranged  in  the  order 
in  which  they  were  supposed  to  rule  the  hours.  The  names 
of  the  daj's  in  many  languages  are  the  remnant  of  those  r«- 


THE  GREAT  MYSTEI11KS  OF  THE   UNIVERSE.  51 

mote  times.  The  first  day  of  the  week  wa8  dedicated  to  the 
sire,  the  next  to  the  moon,  Tuesday,  Mardi,  Mars'  day; 
Misrcredi,  Mercury's  day;  Je.ndi,  Jove's  day;  Vend  red,  Ve- 
nus' day;  Saturday,  Saturn's  day;  and  so  every  day  was  de- 
voted to  some  of  the  planets,  on  account  of  their  mysterious 
.nfiuence. 

Alter  the  Ptolemaic  system  had  proved  inadequate  to  ex- 
plain the  true  motions  of  the  planets,  it  was  thought  that  the 
complexity  might  be  removed  by  selecting  a  proper  center  of 
the  Universe  and  studying  the  planets.  Then  Kepler  dis- 
covered the  position  of  the  sun  at  the  centre  of  our  system,  and 
found  that  the  orbit  of  the  planets  around  it  was  an  ellipse. 
But  he  did  not  account  for  the  peculiarities  of  their  motion. 
There  was  a  simple  law,  but  the  complexity  appeared  to  be 
augmented.  The  mystery  was  greater  than  ever.  The  ques- 
tion was,  why  should  the  planets  travel  in  this  irregular  way? 
We  may  notice  that  science  deals  with  the  "how"  all  the 
time.  A  man  of  science  may  ask  why  it  comes  to  pass,  but 
lie  only  finds  how  it  comes  to  pass. 

Kepler  found  how  the  planets  moved,  but  the  mystery  of 
the  variations  in  their  motions  still  remained.  Suddenly 
Newton  came  and  introduced  another  kind  of  simplicity, 
showing  that  those  variations  could  be  accounted  for  by 
every  particle  attracting  another  particle.  This  was  a  sinr 
pie  law  which  took  the  place  of  the  complex  results  appear- 
ing in  Kepler's  law. 

You  might  think  the  mystery  was  explained,  but  a  new 
mystery  took  its  place.  What  explains  the  law  of  gravity? 
Of  all  the  mysteries  conceived,  there  is  no  greater  mystery 
than  this  one.  No  one  acquainted  with  scientific  reasoning, 
could  imagine  that  one  particle  of  matter  c.ould  act  on 
another  particle,  at  a  distance,  without  any  kind  of  connec- 
tion between  them.  In  1874  I  pointed  out  that  the  action  of 
gravity  must  be  more  rapid  than  the  action  of  light.  The 
light  coming  from  the  sun  takes  eight  minutes  to  reach  the 
earth;  at  that  time  the  earth  has  made  a  change  in  position 
so  that  the  ray  that  falls  upon  it  is  the  next  one  that  was  to 
fall  in  front  of  the  earth.  Gravity  is  a  mutual  force  between 
the  sun  and  the  earth.  The  earth  attracts  the  sun  precisely 
as  the  sun  attracts  the  earth,  only  the  sun  being  so  mucb 


52  THE   GREAT  MYSTERIES   OF   THE   UNIVERSB. 

larger,  exercises  a  greater  force.  It  being  a  mutual  force  ba, 
tween  them,  we  cannot  imagine  it  setting  out  of.the  sun,  and 
traveling  at  the  same  rate  as  light;  if  it  did  it  would  always 
act  in  advancing;  our  pathway  would  widen;  the  length  of  the 
year  would  increase,  while  we  see  there  is  no  change.  There- 
fore gravitation  acts  much  more  rapidly  than  light.  Light  acts 
by  traveling  along  the  waves  of  ether;  it  is  the  most  rapid 
transmission  of  waves  we  know;  it  travels  with  the  enor- 
mous velocity  of  200,000  miles  in  every  second  of  time;  yet 
gravity  acts  millions  of  times  faster. 

I  am  going  to  deal  with  mysteries,  but  I  don't  pretend  to 
explain  them.  I  will  try  to  show,  not  how  they  are,  but  how 
they  might  be  explained. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  waves  of  water;  they  are  not  trans- 
mitted very  rapidly.  Sound  traveling  through  water  is 
transmitted  with  a  greater  velocity.  In  this  case  the  same 
fluid  transmits  two  kinds  of  waves  at  different  rates.  The 
ether  may  have  the  same  property.  If  there  are  waves  of 
sound  in  the  ether,  their  real  motions  must  be  transverse; 
but  at  the  same  time  there  might  be  waves  of  compression, 
which  would  travel  very  fast  like  gravity. 

According  to  the  theory  of  Le  Sage,  adopted  by  "William 
Thompson,  there  are  bodies  very  small  "  ultramundane  cor- 
'ousdes,"  traveling  in  space  in  every  direction  with  great 
velocity,  except  where  they  encounter  matter.  If  there  are 
two  material  objects  between  them,  those  two  shelter  each 
other;  if  corpuscles  travel  between  them,  pressure  is  pro- 
duced on  those  two  masses  on  every  side,  but  not  enough  to 
keep  them  apart.  That  is  illustrated  by  what  happens  when 
there  are  two  ships  at  sea,  especially  on  a  calm  sea,  they 
have  a  tendency  to  be  drawn  together.  The  common 
explanation  is  to  attribute  it  to  the  attractive  power  in  mass 
of  the  ships.  According  to  Thompson's  theory,  the  waves 
going  around  the  sea,  and  those  two  ships  sheltering  each 
other,  the  forces  tending  to  draw  the  ships  together,  are 
£ot  counterbalanced  from  the  inside, and  so  the  two  bodies 
are  brought  together;  and  so  it  might  be  that  the  waves  of 
compression,  traveling  in  ether,  with  that  infinite  velocity, 
being  outside  of  the  earth  and  the  sun, tend  to  draw  them  to- 
gether and  produce  gravitation.  Jf  I  could  give  you  evi- 


GREAT  MYSTERIES   OF  THE  UNIVERSE..  58 

dence  of  it,  then  you  would  say,  Is  the  mystery  of  gravita- 
tion explained?  Not  at  all!  Where  do  these  waves  come 
from?  Why  do  they  travel  in  every  direction,  not  like  light 
which  travels  from  a  known  source,  as  natural  as  the  source 
of  sound?  Whether  we  take  Le  Sage's  theory  of  corpuscles 
or  these  waves,  we  are  brought  to  a  greater  mystery. 

Now  we  will  proceed  to  the  mystery  of  repulsion.  There 
/ou  have  a  series  of  pictures  representing  comets  according 
to  the  fancy  of  the  ancients,  who  looked  at  them  in  ,3rror. 
You  see  there  swords,  lances,  animals.  They  were  associ- 
ated with  the  effects  the  comets  were  expected  to  produce; 
if  a  comet  had  the  shape  of  a  sword,  it  was  supposed  to  pre- 
dict the  beheading  of  a  king.  It  is  said  that  in  1556  Charles 
V.,  seeing  from  his  window  a  comet  in  the  shape  of  a 
sword,  said  it  was  a  sign  that  his  fates  called  him,  and  on 
that  account  he  abdicated.  That  story  may,  or  may  not,  be 
true;  it  is  more  probable  that  it  is  not,  because  history  says 
he  abdicated  in  the  year  before. 

When  men  ceased  to  attach  any  terror  to  the  appearance 
of  the  comets,  they  began  to  observe  them,  and  found  that 
they  traveled  on  a  parabolic  or  hyperbolic  course;  they 
traced  them  in  space  and  saw  them  gradually  growing  larger; 
they  were  able  to  calculate  the  paths  they  will  follow  among 
the  stars.  By  extending  our  powers  of  research  we  can  de- 
termine the  changes  that  take  place,  we  see  the  "how"  of 
the  comets'  changes;  we  can  measure  the  comets — how 
many  miles  in  diameter  they  have  in  the  nucleus.  We  trace 
an  association  between  comets  and  meteors.  In  applying 
the  spectroscope  analysis,  we  find  they  give  a  spectrum,  in- 
dicative of  the  gaseity  of  their  light,  and  we  distinguish  cer- 
tain elements  in  them,  such  as  carbon.  We  see  many  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  comets  explained,  but  the  mystery  of  the 
formation  of  tails  remains  unsolved.  It  apparently  brings  us 
in  presence  of  that  intense  repulsion  which  in  velocity  seems 
to  exceed  gravitation,  especially  when  we  observe  the  velocity 
with  which  these  tails— sometimes  fifty  to  ninety  million* 
e>f  miles  in  length— are  swept  in  a  few  hours  from  one  side 
of  the  comet  to  the  opposite  side,  when  they  approach  the 
sun.  As  Herschel  said,  the  tail  cannot  be  considered  as  a  rod 
flying  around  the  comet;  it  must  be  propelled  by  the  sun'i 


64  THE  GREAT  MYSTERIES   OP  THE  UNIVERSE. 

energy.  There  is  one  other  theory,  according  to  which,  the 
sun's  rays,  poured  upon  the  head  of  the  comet,  are  deprived 
by  the  comet  of  their  heating  action,  but  their  actinic  action 
passes  on  and  has  the  power  of  calling  into  existence  behind 
the  head  of  the  comet  a  faint  cloud  formed  of  outside  matter. 
Tyndall,  who  advanced  this  theory,  based  it  upon  the  follow- 
ing experiment:  He  took  a  long  tube,  apparently  free  from 
any  material  substance  except  air,  then  placed  in  it 
a  piece  of  blotting  paper,  previously  immersed  in  water, 
and  allowed  to  dry,  and  let  the  air  pass  upon'  it.  Then 
he  allowed  the  light  of  an  electric  spark  to  fall  np^n 
the  tube  and  there  appeared  a  cloud,  distinctly,  in  the  tube. 
He  opened  the  tube,  to  let  in  dry  air,  which  carried  out  all 
the  vapor,  leaving  nothing  but  an  invisible  residue,  then 
closed  the  tube  again.  Yet  when  the  rays  from  the  electric 
spark  fell  on  it,  again  the  cloud  appeared,  which  corresponds 
in  character,  as  in  apperance,  to  the  tail  of  the  comet. 

Yet  some  appearances  in  comets  cannot  be  so  explained. 
There  are  some  phenomena  observed  in  the  tail  of  Donati's 
comet,  for  instance,  which  can  only  be  accounted  for  by 
matter  being  repelled  from  the  head  to  the  tail  of  the  comet. 
The  rapidity  with  which  it  acts  is  so  much  greater  than 
gravitation,  as  to  force  us  to  believe  in  some  unknown 
law.  Gravity  took  seven  days  in  conducting  the  head  of  the 
comet  over  a  space  of  90,000,000  miles,  while  the  tail  of  the 
comet  was  swept  over  the  same  space  in  a  few  hours.  And 
so  we  come  to  a  force  which  gives  us  no  means  of  judging 
how  this  repulsive  action  comes  into  existence.  There  is  a 
possibility  that  it  may  be  explained,  but  at  the  present  time 
it  puzzles  all  our  conjectures. 

Now  we  pass  to  the  sun.  See  how  the  Arabs  bow  before 
the  sun,  viewing  him  as  a  center,  who  has  the  power  to  in- 
fluence life,  which  indeed  he  has;  but  they  adore  him  as  if 
he  was  a  personal  power.  Here,  also,  men  gradually  went  on 
with  their  researches,  and  instead  of  viewing  the  sun  as  an 
unexplainable  deity,  they  found  out  the  facts  by  reasoning  and 
by  various  methods  of  observation.  They  found  the  way  in 
which  this  orb  car.  be  observed.  Tycho  Brahe  discovered 
that  its  whole  surface  was  covered  with  flames;  then  the 
spots  were  examined,  the  way  in  which  the  sun  rotates  on 


•THE   GREAT   MYSTERIES  OF  THE   UNIVERSE.  58 

its  axis,  and  the  changes  it  brings.  It  was  seen  that  the 
whole  frame  of  the  sun  was  subject  to  disturbances.  Then 
the  sun  was  made  to  take  pictures  of  itself.  A  relation  be- 
tween the  changes  there  and  terrestrial  phenomena  was  ob- 
served. Then  Stephen  Langley  went  on  analyzing  the  sun 
and  recognized  the  cyclonic  disturbances  taking  place  there, 
and  the  velocity  with  which  those  storms  sweep  over  the 
sun  was  determined.  By  means  of  the  spectroscope  they 
analyzed  the  structure  of  the  sun,  determined  the  position  of 
the  dark  lines  of  the  spectrum;  they  showed  how  the  various 
elements  have  their  bright  lines,  how  those  bright  lines  cor- 
respond with  the  dark  lines;  and  so  they  recognized  the  fact 
that  iron  and  other  elements  exist  in  the  sun. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  way  hi  which,  during  the  solar 
eclipse,  the  shadow  of  the  sun  sweeps  across  the  earth,  they 
placed  themselves  along  the  shadowy  track  and  described 
the  prominences  and  the  corona ;  and  instead  of  bowing  to  the 
sun,  they  ascertain  that  he  is  surrounded  by  prominences 
which  consist  of  flames  enwrapping  the  frame  of  the  sun, 
that  those  flames  consist  of  glowing  matte*;  and  passing 
further  they  ascertained  the  means  by  which  they  might 
watch  the  prominences,  even  when  there  was  no  eclipse. 
They  advanced  further  towards  interrogating  those  myste- 
ries obtaining   more  and  more  resembling  features  of  the 
matter  spreading   out  from  the  sun,  they  noticed  pecul- 
iarities ot    construction,   showing  the  existence  of  repul- 
sive forces  exerted  by  the  sun.    There  is  a  photographic 
picture  of  the  corona,  photographed  by  itself  in  1870,  then 
another  aspect  of  it  in  1871.     From  the  corona  they  have 
passed  to  the  zodiacal  light  itself,  and  to  the  outlines  of  the 
envelopes  of  the  sun.    All  these  researches  they  made  grad- 
ually; but  they  arrived  at  the  lesson  that  the  sun  presents 
mysteries  they  cannot  explain.     We  may  think  that  the  sun 
by  its  mighty  mass  recruits  its  own  forces.     The  indrawing 
of  meteoric  masses  gives  us  a  way  of  accounting  for  the 
duration  of  its  heat  for  many  millions  of  years;  the  gradual 
mdrawing  of  its  own  mass  is  another  source  of  heat  with 
which  the  sun  can  supply  us  for  millions  of  years. 

Still  our  knowledge  remains  unsatisfied.    There  is  yet  the 
great  mystery  of  the  formation  of  matter.    If  the  nebula  or 


66  THE  GREAT  MYSTERIES  OF  THS  UNIVERSE. 

star  cloudlets  were  readjusted  from  a  fluid  occupying  space, 
according  to  a  theory  advanced,  the  astronomers  can  deal 
with  the  nebulae,  study  all  the  forms  of  nebulae,  one  after 
another,  and  trace  the  way  that  these  nebulous  clouds  arc 
formed,  but  still  there  remains  the  mystery  of  how  the  mat 
ter  began  to  form  those  nebulous  processes.  Having  been  leo 
by  the  lightenings  oi  reason  to  find  the  means  of  extending 
our  knowledge  of  the  invisible  Universe,  we  might  perhaps 
find  there  the  way  to  answer  some  of  the  most  interesting 
questions  which  associate  science  and  religion.  I  don't 
want  to  touch  on  those  questions  which  bring  differences 
between  science  and  religion,  but  some  questions  on  which 
they  agree  may  occupy  us. 

First  we  find  the  evidence  of  an  absolute  aim.  Nothing 
can  be  more  certain  than  that  an  absolute  end  is  mani- 
fested in  the  Universe.  In  every  moment,  in  every  instant, 
of  the  sun's  pouring  out  energy  in  space,  there  is  a  tendency 
towards  the  equalizing  of  the  temperature,  meaning  death. 
As  the  sun  pours  its  energy  upon  the  earth,  it  undergoes 
changes;  light  is  changed  into  heat,  heat  into  electricity. 
Nothing  is  destroyed,  but  as  the  heat  is  continually  spread 
into  space,  this  interchange  of  heat  is  a  tendency  towards 
absolute  death;  and  there  seems  to  be  no  escape  from  that 
absolute  end  of  the  visible  Universe.  But  the  visible  Uni- 
verse may  be  only  one  form  of  the  real  Universe.  Our 
planets  and  suns  may  be  mere  atoms  of  a  larger  Universe. 
We  have  our  atoms,  the  molecules  of  our  chemists,  that  may 
be  universes  compared  with  the  ultimate  particle  of  that 
ether  which  is  necessary  for  the  transmission  of  light  and 
heat,  and  electricity,  and  gravitation,  and  repulsion.  It 
may  be  as  tenuous  compared  with  our  atoms  as  those  atoms 
are  compared  with  the  sun  and  planets. 

Now  comes  the  question :  Is  there  a  possibility  of  a  future 
life  in  the  invisible  Universe?  There  are  rays  of  light  from 
the  sun  poured  in  that  Universe  continually.  If  there  is 
not  any  particular  receptacle  of  the  sun's  rays,  how  is  it  that 
the  whole  space  is  not  covered  with  stars?  Balfour  Stuart 
brought  out  the  idea  which  does  not  seem  associated  with 
astronomy,  but  still  is  related  to  the  star  depths,  that 
the  future  life  may  be  possible;  that  after  death  thought  and 


GREAT  MYSTERIES  OF  THE  UNIVERSE.  87 

recollection  still  remain  in  existence.  There  is  one  thought 
I  often  had  before  the  idea  of  Balfour  Stuart,  which 
corresponds  with  it.  We  know  that  equal  causes  produce 
equal  effects.  Take  a  mind  capable  of  ruling  the  fates 
of  nations,  and  another  of  no  brain  at  all — the  same  bul- 
let will  destroy  the  one  and  the  other,  and  yet  in  one 
case  the  amount  of  influence  is  small,  in  the  other  it  is 
important.  Where  does  the  difference  belong?  Balfour 
Stuart  says  that  all  the  time  there  is  traveling  through  space, 
the  memory  of  past  events,  carried  through  space  by  light 
rays  or  heat  rays  or  any  other  way.  The  deeds  of  men, 
done  a  hundred  years  ago,  are,  at  this  moment,  conveyed 
through  the  depths,  and  if  we  had  sufficient  telescopic 
power,  we  might  have  the  insight  of  what  was  going  on  hi 
past  ages.  If  there  were  a  future  life,  or  if  it  were  possible 
to  pass  from  one  space  to  another,  men  could  go  to  the 
places  where  the  ether  is  carrying  their  lives,  and  live  them 
over  again. 

I  touch  on  that  to  show  how  these  mysteries  can  be  con- 
nected, one  with  another.  This  mystery  of  the  invisible  Uni- 
verse, to  which  attraction,  and  infinite  energy,  and  life  and 
death  of  worlds  have  led  us,  is  all  the  time  exceedingly  dark, 
but  the  existence  of  this  invisible  Universe  is  not  specula- 
tive. Perhaps  there  we  may  find  one  day  realized  Tenny- 
son's idea, 

That  mind  and  soul,  according  well. 
Will  make  one  musio  as  before, 
But  vaster  1 

and  in  tne  workings  of  that  Universe,  according  to  the 
thought  of  the  poet-laureate,  we  may 

See  all  things  together  blending. 
Each  to  all  its  being  lending. 
All  on  each  in  turn  depending. 
Heavenly  ministers  descending. 
And  again  to  heaven  uptendlng. 
Floating,  mingling,  interweaving. 
Rising,  sinking,  and  receiving 
Each  from  each,  while  each  Is  giving 
Unto  each,  and  each  relieving 
Each— the  golden  pails.    The  living 


68  RELIGION   AND   ASTRONOMt. 

Current  through  the  air  is  heaving, 
Breathing,  blessing— see  them  blending, 
Balanced  worlds  from  change  defending, 
Wuile  everywhere  diffused  is  harmony  unending. 


RELIGION  AND  ASTEONOMT, 


In  connection  with  Prof.  Proctor's  Steinway  Hall  course 
,f  lectures,  we  will  give  our  readers  an  abstract  of  a  lecture 
on  Religion  and  Astronomy,  delivered  by  him  in  Boston, 
Nov.  28,  1875: 

Astronomy  holds  a  somewhat  exceptional  position  in  re- 
lation to  religion.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  held  to  be  the 
science,  which  of  all  others,  most  directly  leads  the  mind 
"from  Nature  up  to  Nature's  God."  "The  undevout  as- 
tronomer," says  Young,  "is  mad,"  and  he  proceeds  to  tell 
us  why  the  study  of  astronomy  should  make  men  devout. 

"  True,  all  things  speak  of  God,  but  in  the  small. 
Men  seek  out  him,  in  great  he  seizes  man." 

As  the  researches  of  the  astronomer  range  over  all  the 
portion  of  the  Universe  into  which  even  the  mightiest  tele- 
scope can  penetrate,  while  his  thoughts  pass  beyond  that 
portion  to  infinity  of  space  itself,  he,  of  all  men,  should  be 
most  mightily  influenced  by  his  conceptions  of  the  being  in 
whom  and  through  whom  all  things  "live,  move,  and  have 
their  being."  But,  on  the  other  hand,  between  astronomy 
and  dogmatic  religion  there  has  been  a  long-standing  feud. 
Astronomy,  first  of  all  the  sciences,  introduced  doubts  re- 
specting the  meaning  at  least,  if  not  the  truth,  of  portions 
of  the  Bible  record.  Those  doubts  were  not  met  by  reason- 
ing or  expostulation,  but  by  a  resort  to  force  and  cruelty. 
Galileo  was  tortured  for  opposing  the  doctrine  of  a  central 
earth.  Giordano  Bruno,  venturing  further  to  assert  that 


RELIGION  AKD  ASTONOMY.  59 

other  worlds  besides  our  earth  exist,  was  for  that  and  simi- 
lar heresies  burned  at  the  stake.  The  contest  over  those 
first  doubts  was  decided,  not  quickly,  indeed,  but  conclu- 
sively in  favor  of  science ;  and  for  more  than  a  century  no 
well-informed  man,  whether  theologian  or  layman,  has  in- 
sisted upon  the  literal  interpretation  of  those  passages  of 
Scripture  which  seem  to  imply  that  the  earth  is  the  central 
and  most  important  body  in  the  Universe.  But  soon  after 
securing  the  first  success,  science  raised  new  and  more 
troublesome  issues.  Again  astronomy  was  the  offending 
science.  Herschel,  searching  through  the  star-depths,  had 
found  vast  tracts  of  nebulous  light,  and  had  been  led  to 
connect  these  regions  of  luminous  mist  with  the  fixed  stars 
by  a  series  of  links  suggesting  a  process  of  gradual  evolution 
from  diffused  nebulosity  through  irregular  nebulae,  planet 
ary  nebulae,  and  nebulous  stars,  till  the  star  or  sun  itself  (or 
else  a  scheme  of  suns)  was  formed.  Laplace,  studying  the 
movements  of  the  solar  system,  and  distinguishing  between 
the  characteristics  which  are  explained  by  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation and  those  left  unaccounted  for,  found  clearest  evi- 
dence that  the  solar  system  must  have  reached  its  present 
condition  by  a  process  of  evolution,  and  though  he  admitted 
that  the  nature  of  the  process  might  be  doubtful,  he  unhes- 
itatingly asserted  that  some  process  of  development  there 
must  have  been,  or  else  all  the  laws  of  probability  have  to 
be  abandoned  and  an  unscientific  method  is  to  be  adopted 
in  dealing  with  this  essentially  scientific  question. 

This  attack,  as  it  was  considered,  on  the  Bible  narrative, 
though  fiercely  opposed  by  the  few  among  theologians  who 
understood  its  significance,  caused  by  no  means  so  wide- 
spread an  excitement  as  the  first  attempt  to  introduce  the 
system  of  Copernicus.  It  was  not  till  geology  began  to  pre- 
sent the  evidence  of  the  earth's  crust,  indicating  a  history 
far  other  than  the  Bible  account,  as  heretofore  understood, 
that  theologians  began  again  to  be  notably  disquieted.  I 
need  not  remind  you  of  the  fierce  contest  which  thereupon 
ensued.  The  doubts  raised  by  geologists  were  at  first  de- 
rided. Then  as  the  weight  of  evidence  given  by  paleontol 
ogists,  microscopists,  chemists,  and  others  (gradually  also 
by  biologists),  began  to  be  felt,  the  amazing  theory  was 


60  RELIGION  AND  ASTRONOMY. 

advanced  that  all  the  features  of  the  earth's  crust  were  cre- 
ated in  the  beginning  as  they  now  exist  purposely  to  delude 
inquisitive  and  unbelieving  men;  in  point  of  fact  to  give 
Satan  a  fair  chance  in  his  game  for  human  souls  with  their 
Creator.  This  hypothesis  gave  way,  however,  as  not  meet- 
ing the  views  even  of  those — the  ve^  ignorant — for  whose 
benefit  it  had  been  invented.  It  was  discovered  quickly 
that  the  Bible  account  was  right,  after  all,  but  had  simply 
been  misunderstood  till  now.  Nay,  it  was  found  that  the 
poetical  sketch  of  creation  in  the  beginning  of  the  book  of 
Genesis,  accords  so  remarkably  with  these  modern  scientific 
discoveries,  that  new  evidence  is  thus  supplied  in  proof  of 
the  inspiration  of  Moses,  at  that  time  supposed  to  be  the 
writer  of  the  Pentateuch.  This  explanation  of  the  meaning 
of  the  Bible  account  of  creation  is  still  in  vogue  among  the- 
ologians, some  of  whom  consider  that  the  matter  is  reduced 
by  this  explanation  to  the  simple  dilemma:  either  Moses 
(or  whoever  wrote  the  book  of  Genesis)  was  inspired  to 
write  as  he  did,  or  else  must  have  been  a  perfect  master  of 
science  as  now  taught,  and  the  latter  alternative,  no  less  than 
the  former,  implies  that  he  received  miraculous  assistance. 

You  will  remember,  therefore,  that  if  I  now  proceed  to 
show  how  inadequately  the  account  of  creation  in  Genesis, 
as  formerly  understood,  accords  with  received  scientific 
ideas,  I  need  by  no  means  be  regarded  as  opposing  the  Bible 
record.  On  the  contrary,  according  to  the  received  theolog- 
ical interpretation,  I  am  leading  you  up  to  the  fact  that  sci- 
eaice  has  in  this  matter  proved  herself  the  handmaiden  of 
religion  by  finding  out  for  us  the  true  meaning  of  a  part  of 
the  Bible  (only  somehow  it  so  chances  that  theologians  are 
not  so  grateful  to  science  for  this  service  as  one  might  have 
expected).  The  Bible  account,  then,  as  thus  misinterpreted 
(for  a  rather  long  period),  begins  by  stating  that  in  the  be- 
ginning God  made  the  earth  and  the  sky;  the  earth  form- 
less, the  sky  dark.  Then  light  appeared,  and  under  the 
name  of  Day  was  separated  from  the  darkness  called  Night. 
As  the  sun  had  not  yet  been  made,  this  light  was  not  sun- 
light, nor  were  day  and  night  caused  by  the  rotation  of  th& 
earth.  Indeed,  the  account  (always  as  misinterpreted)  gave 
the  idea  of  a  flat,  circular  earth,  not  of  a  rotating  globe.  It 


KELIGION  AND   ASTRONOMY.  fll 

may  be  the  light  was  auroral  [a  picture  of  the  aurora  was 
shown],  and  its  spectrum  that  as  now  shown,  or  it  may  be 
the  light  was  of  the  nature  of  that  faint  luminosity  which 
we  see  in  the  gaseous  nebulae,  and  had  the  spectral  charac- 
ter next  indicated.  Be  this  as  it  may,  a  firmament  or  clear 
space  was  next  formed,  and  the  waters  divided  into  two 
portions,  one  under  the  firmament  or  heaven,  the  other 
forming  a  water  supply  above  the  firmament  (whence  rain 
was  supposed  to  come,  especially  when  needed  in  great 
quantities,  as  for  the  flood).  The  waters  under  the  firma- 
ment or  sky  were  then  gathered  into  one  place  so  that  dry 
land  appeared ;  and  on  this  dry  land,  grass,  seed,  herbs,  and 
fruit  trees  were  formed  by  special  creative  acts.  And  now 
the  time  had  come  when  the  celestial  bodies  which  form  the 
subject  of  astronomical  study  were  to  be  created,  for  signs 
(astrological),  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  years.  The 
sun,  with  his  mighty  globe,  exceeding  the  earth's  1,250,000 
times,  and  the  scene  of  processes  so  stupendous  that  the 
whole  frame  of  ii±e  earth  would  be  destroyed  if  subjected 
for  a  moment  to  the  millionth  part  of  their  action,  was  set 
up  in  the  sky  for  us  to  measure  our  days  by ;  the  moon  next, 
to  rule  the  night;  and  then  the  stars  were  added;  planets 
— orbs  of  like  nature  with  our  earth ;  but  many  far  larger — 
and  fixed  stars,  suns  like  our  own,  but  some  so  vast  as  to 
dwarf  even  his  bulk  into  insignificance,  and  to  make  hig 
mighty  energy  seem  like  weakness. 

"And  God  set  these  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to 
give  light  upon  the  earth."  There  was  at  once,  according 
to  that  old  and  erroneous,  but  very  natural  interpretation, 
an  answer  to  all  our  doubts  about  the  purpose  in  which  all 
these  orbs  were  made.  "  Surely  not  to  illuminate  our 
Slights,"  says  Sir  J.  Herschel,  "not  to  sparkle  as  a  pageant 
void  of  meaning  and  reality  and  bewilder  us  among  vain 
conjectures.  He  must  have  studied  astronomy  to  little  pur- 
pose who  can  suppose  man  to  be  the  only  object  of  his 
Creator's  care. "  But  for  no  other  purpose  the  Bible  account, 
as  misinterpreted,  asserts:  "  God  set  them  in  the  firmament 
of  the  heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  and  to  rule  over 
the  day  and  over  the  night,  and  to  divide  the  light  from  the 
darkness. "  I  pass  over  the  remaining  portion  of  the  account 


62  BELIGION  AND   ASTRONOMY. 

of  creation,  as  not  relating  to  astronomy.  But  in  passing  I 
must  note  that  I  think  they  err  who  consider  that  the  struggle 
respecting  evolution  must  rage  chiefly  around  the  question 
of  biological  development.  Just  now  it  is  there  the  strug- 
gle is  warmest,  but  the  time  may  be  at  hand  when  men  will 
find  in  philological  and  ethnological  questions,  or  in  the 
study  of  cerebral  phenomena,  the  most  vitally  interesting 
matters  for  inquiry.  Nor  is  it  at  all  impossible  that  astron- 
omy, already  twice  in  the  forefront  of  the  contest,  may 
again  be  found  in  that  position,  because  of  the  bearing  of 
facts  yet  to  be  ascertained  respecting  subjects  now  forming 
the  great  mysteries  of  astronomy,  as  cometic  phenomena, 
the  true  action  of  gravitation,  laws  of  repulsive  action,  etc., 
besides  the  manifest  bearing  of  astronomical  research  on 
that  vitally-important  subject,  the  conservation  of  energy. 
Nor  must  I  pass  from  this  part  of  my  subject  without  no- 
ting the  apparent  discrepancies  between  the  accounts  given 
in  the  first  and  second  chapters  of  Genesis.  In  the  first  we 
are  told  that  plants  were  made  after  the  waters  had  been 
separated;  then  followed  the  creation  of  the  sun  and  moon, 
the  stars  also,  sea  creatures  and  birds,  land  creatures  gener- 
ally, and  man  in  particular,  in  the  image  of  God,  after  his 
likeness,  "male  and  female  created  he  them."  In  the 
second,  after  plants  were  created,  a  mist  went  up  and  water- 
ed the  whole  face  of  the  earth,  then  man  was  formed,  the 
Garden  of  Eden  planted  by  the  Lord  God ;  and  when  man 
had  been  put  there,  "the  Lord  God  formed  out  of  the 
ground  every  beast  of  the  field  and  every  fowl  of  the  air, 
and  brought  them  to  Adam,  to  see  what  he  would  call  them, 
after  which  task  Adam  fell  asleep,  and  a  rib  taken  from  his 
side  was  made  into  woman  as  a  helpmeet  for  him.  As  both 
accounts,  however,  are  interpreted  quite  differently  than  of 
yore,  these  discrepancies  have  been  made  to  disappear. 

I  need  not  go  on  to  describe  how  the  circumstances  in 
which  Adam  and  Eve  had  been  placed  led  to  trouble  and 
death;  how  thereafter  wickedness  increased,  until  God  saw 
that  every  imagination  of  man's  heart  was  only  evil  contin- 
ually, so  that  "it  repented  the  Lord  that  he  had  made  man 
on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved  him  at  his  heart,"  so  that  no 
course  seemed  good  to  him,  but  to  destroy  both  man  and 


RELIGION  AND  ASTRONOMY.  63 

beast  and  creeping  thing  and  the  fowls  of  the  air,  not  by 
his  mere  will  that  as  they  had  been  created,  so  they  should 
perish,  but  by  the  complex  device  of  a  universal  deluge, 
during  which  certain  persons  and  animals  were  safely  float- 
ed about  in  the  Ark. 

Returning  to  the  account  of  creation,  it  appears  that  the 
real  explanation  ascends  perfectly  with  astronomical  and 
geological  researches.  The  enormous  time,  intervals  requir- 
ed by  geology,  are  found  in  the  six  days,  when  these  are 
understood  to  be  periods  of  indefinite  length.  The  evolu- 
tion theory  of  astronomy  is  beautifully  illustrated  by  the 
account  in  Genesis,  when  we  take  the  narrative  as  recording 
a  series  of  visions  presenting  the  gradual  development  of 
the  earth  as  it  would  have  appeared  to  a  being  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  planet  from  the  earliest  age  of  its  history.  He 
could  preceive  light  and  darkness  alternating  long  before 
the  mass  of  clouds  covering  the  whole  sky  had  been  dis- 
solved away  so  as  to  show  the  sun  and  moon  and  stars. 
The  period  when  vegetation  was  formed  was  really  the  car- 
boniferous era,  while  the  succession  of  animals  corresponds 
to  the  succession  indicated  by  the  various  geological  strata. 
Very  probably  we  shall  before  long  find  that  even  the  Dar- 
winian theory  is  indicated  by  the  way  in  which  the  creation 
of  man  is  included  with  that  of  animals  in  the  work  of  the 
sixth  day.  Thus  does  the  progress  of  science  throw  light 
on  the  meaning  of  the  revealed  narrative  of  creation,  and 
we  perceive — say  theologians — how  the  Bible  writer  was 
inspired  to  say  what  was  strictly  true  in  every  word  and  in 
every  syllable,  though  for  some  inscrutable  purpose  *it  was 
BO  arranged  that  the  true  meaning  of  the  narrative  should 
not  be  recognized  until  men  had  found  out  the  truth  in 
another  way. 

After  the  six  days  or  eras  of  work  came  the  seventh  day 
or  era,  when  "God  rested  and  was  refreshed;"  and  so  he 
blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  the  week  of  seven  days  (not 
eras!)  was  appointed.  I  spoke  in  my  last  lecture  of  what 
seems  to  have  been  the  true  origin  of  the  weeK,  even  accord- 
ing to  Josephus,  who,  as  a  Jew,  might  have  been  expected 
to  maintain  the  origin  described  in  the  Bible  of  his  nation. 
It  has  been  pointed  out  to  me  that  Moses  must  have  had 


64  RELIGION    AND   ASTRONOMY. 

more  than  the  purpose  of  merely  sanctioning  an  Egyptian 
festival,  seeing  that  he  caused  the  man  who  gathered  sticks 
on  the  Sabbath  to  be  stoned  to  death,  saying  this  was 
specially  commanded  by  the  Lord.  (Num.  xv.)  I  need  not 
express  any  opinion  about  this  act.  But  I  may  strengthen 
the  position  I  assumed  on  this  point  by  noting  that  all  the 
special  sacrifices  made  by  the  Jews  according  to  the  Mosaic 
law  indicate  an  astrological  origin.  These  were  offered  at 
sunrise  and  sunset,  (Num.  xxviii.  3,  4:)  the  offerings  on  Sat- 
urn's day,  the  Sabbath,  (Num.  xxviii.  9;)  the  offerings  to  the 
new  moon  (the  day  of  new  moon  being  scarcely  less  holy  in 
Jewish  eyes  than  the  Sabbaths),  (Num.  xxviii.  11 ;)  and  the 
sacrifices  on  the  great  luni-solar  festival  belonging  to  the 
first  month  of  the  sun's  annual  circuit  of  the  zodiacal  con- 
stellations. The  very  idea  of  sacrifice  was  manifestly  bor- 
rowed from  nations  having  debased  and  material  concep- 
tions of  the  Deity;  from  men  who  imagined  a  God  after 
their  own  likeness,  and  gave  him  all  the  attributes  of  the 
being  most  powerful  in  their  eyes — the  Oriental  despot, 
cruel  and  relentless  if  offended,  and  ready  to  take  offense  at 
the  least  (even  accidental)  fault  of  omission  or  of  commis- 
sion. The  cruelties  of  the  King  of  Dahomey  scarcely  sur- 
pass those  committed  by  Moses,  claiming  divine  authority 
for  his  conduct  (Num.  xxxi).  The  most  debasing  supersti- 
tions described  by  African  travelers  are  not  more  ghastly 
than  the  method  of  divination  by  a  medicine  test  appointed 
in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Numbers. 

Passing  to  matters  more  strictly  within  the  range  of  his 
subject.,  the  lecturer  discussed  tiie  standing  still  of  the  sun 
and  moon,  a  miracle  described  in  terms  manifestly  indicat- 
ing the  belief  in  a  central  flat  earth  with  certain  relatively 
small  bodies  moving  for  signs  upon  the  concave  of  the  sky. 
In  passing,  he  said,  this  corresponded  with  the  account  of 
that  exceeding  high  mountain  whence  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  earth  were  seen.  The  miracle  of  the  going  back  of  the 
shadow  on  the  dial,  and  its  association  with  the  lengthening 
of  Hezeldah's  life  in  response  to  prayer,  were  then  consid- 
ered, with  special  reference  to  the  question  of  the  eflicacy  of 
prayer.  This  part  of  the  lecture  was  illustrated  by  views  of 
eclipses.  The  lecturer  compared  the  way  in  which  nations 


RELIGION  AND  ASTRONOMY.  65 

ignorant  of  the  true  nature  of  eclipses  pray  for  the  restora- 
tion of  sunlight,  or  otherwise  manifest  their  sense  of  awt 
and  wonder,  with  the  confidence  of  the  student  of  science. 
This  confidence  is  simply  the  result  of  a  certain  knowledge 
of  what  is  taking  place.  As  science  removes  natural  pro- 
cesses and  phenomena  from  the  domain  of  the  unknown  to 
that  of  the  known,  so  part  passu  the  thought  that  prayer 
may  cause  the  progress  of  such  processes  and  phenomena  to 
be  modified  must  of  necessity  disappear.  It  is  only  while 
we  are  uncertain  that  prayer,  as  ordinarily  understood,  ia 
possible,  and  the  student  of  science  learns  gradually  to  ex- 
tend to  processes  beyond  his  range  of  research  the  reasoning 
he  had  applied  to  those  within  it;  to  behave  in  the  same 
manner  in  presence  of  processes  whose  law  he  has  not 
grasped  as  in  presence  of  processes  whose  course  he  can  cer- 
tainly anticipate.  This  is  simply  because  he  knows  cer- 
tainly that  the  former,  like  the  latter,  are  under  the  domin- 
ions of  law,  and  cannot  be  affected — never  are  affected,  at 
least,  so  far  as  experience  shows — by  circumstances  not 
operating  directly  upon  their  physical  cause  or  causes. 
After  discussing  the  star  said  to  have  led  the  wise  men  from  the 
East,  the  lecturer  brought  his  discourse  to  a  close  by  dwell- 
ing on  the  importance  of  recognizing  the  dominion  of  uni- 
form law  throughout  the  Universe.  This  great  doctrine, 
when  once  thoroughly  understood,  cannot  but  prove  a  safe- 
guard against  excesses  such  as  have  been  and  continue  to  be 
committed  in  the  name  of  religion — a  safeguard  against  the 
existence  of  the  superstitions  to  which  such  excesses  are 
due.  The  belief  in  universal  law,  regarded  by  many  in 
these  days  as  a  rock  ahead,  will  be  one  day  recognized  as  a 
breakwater  against  seas  which  have  been  heavy  and  may  be 
heavy  yet  again. 


FREETHINKERS'  PICTORIAL  TEXT-BOOK, 

SHOWING 

THE  ABSUBDITY  AND  UNTKUTHFULNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH'S  CLAIM  TO  BE  A  DIVINE 

AND  BENEFICENT  INSTITUTION,  AND  REVEALING  THE  ABUSES 

OF  CHUP.CH  AND  STATE. 

ONE  HUNDRED  AND    EMIT-FIYE   FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS. 
WITH  copious  CITATIONS  OF  FACTS,  HISTORY,  STATISTICS  AND 

OPINIONS  OF  SCHOLARS  TO  MAINTAIN  THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE  ARTIST- 

DESIGNS  BY  WATSON  HESTON,  V;ITH  POETKAIT  OF  THE  DESIGNER. 

The  illustrations  are  classified  as  follows : 


M  represent  Uncle  Sam  and  the  Priests. 
2         "          The  Church  Robbing  the 

People. 

8         "          Thanksgiving. 
6         ••          Sabbath  Laws. 
14       "          Children  and  the  Church. 
10       "          Woman  and  the  Church. 
6         "         The  Church  and  Thomas 

Paine. 

4         "          Studies  in  Natural  History. 
2         "          The  Bible  and  Science. 
15 .     "          The    Clergy     and    their 

Flocks. 

1  "          Piety  in  our  Penitentiaries. 
4        '•         The  Atonement  Scheme. 

4         »          The  Lord  and  His  Works. 

2  "          Prayer. 

10       "         The  Creeds. 
1        "         Christians  and  Mahome- 
tans. 


2  represent  Samples  of  Christianity's 
Work. 

5  '          Missionaries. 

1          '          The  Lord's  Instruments. 
25        '          Bible  Doctrines  and  their 
Results. 

1  •          The  Church  and  Slavery. 

2  •          Priests  and  Politics. 

4          «          Ireland  and  the  Church. 

2  •          Church  Idea  of  Civiliza- 

tion. 

1          '          The  Uses  of  the  Cross. 
4          '          Unkind  Reflection  on  the 

Church. 

9          '          Persecutions  of  the  Church 
12        •         Some  Allegories. 

3  '         Heaven. 

6  "         Hell. 

7  "         Miscellaneous 


What  They  Say  About  the  Picture  Book. 

The  Freethinkers'  Magazine. 

A  mosT  extraordinary  publication.  We  venture  the  assertion  that  nothing 
like  it  has  ever  before  appeared  in  this  country,  and  it  is  very  doubtful  if  an- 
other one  like  it  will  ever  again  be  published.  We  must  give  the  Truth  Seeker 
Company  the  credit  of  putting  the  book  in  the  reach  of  all.  At  twice  the  price 
it  would  have  been  a  cheap  book.  Artist  Heston  as  a  portrait  painter  and  de 
signer  is  a  wonderful  success,  and  we  judge  from  our  own  feelings  that  nearly 
every  Liberal  in  America  will  desire  a  copy  of  this  most  wonderful  volume. 

The  Boston  Investigator. 

Mr.  Heston  deserves  to  be  called  the  artist-hero  of  Liberalism.  He  has  dedi- 
cated his  gen'us  to  Freethought,  and  has  done  faithful  and  noble  work  for  the 
cause  of  right  and  truth.  But  the  pictures  do  not  make  up  the  whole  of  this 
volume.  There  are  nearly  two  hundred  pages  of  reading  matter  that  serve 
first  as  explanations  of  the  illustrations,  and  secondly  as  texts  to  prove  the 
utter  falsity  of  the  church's  professions  and  the  hypocrisy  of  those  who  up- 
hold them.  Altogether  the  book  is  one  of  the  best  weapons  against  Christi- 
anity and  the  church  that  has  ever  been  put  in  the  hands  of  Freethinkers. 

Charles  Watts  in  Secular  Thought. 

The  book  deserves  to  be  read  far  and  .wide.  The  cartoons  are  really  excel- 
lent, while  the  reading  matter  has  been  selected  with  great  care  and  taste. 
The  two  combined  afford  much  amusement  and  convey  a  vast  amount  of  use- 
ful information.  The  general  "get-up  "  of  the  book  is  first-class,  the  cartoons 
ara  clean,  the  paper  is  good,  and  the  printing  is  in  largt  clear  type. 


From  the  Denison  Gazetteer,  Texas. 

The  illustrations  truthfully  represent  church  absurdities,  priestly  hypocrisy, 
and  religious  tyranny,  and  the  degrading  effects  of  practicing  many  of  the  so- 
ealled  revealed  commands.  The  book  is  really  an  unanswerable  argument  of 
symbols;  it  is  folly  sketched  by  reason.  The  expression  of  the  characters  is 
BO  lifelike,  and  the  true  inwardness  of  the  subjects  selected  so  well  shown, 
that  the  book  is  enough  to  make  even  a  preacher  laugh.  The  texts  accom- 
panying the  illustrations  are  reliable  and  often  from  Scripture.  The  book  is 
more  than  a  collection  of  mere  caricatures,  it  is  a  faithful  illustration  of  false- 
hood and  truths  most  ingeniously  wrought  out,  every  picture  presenting  an 
argument  as  convincing  aS  it  is  entertaining. 

Moses  Harman  in  Lucifer. 

This  method  of  teaching  useful  lessons  is  a  most  effectiveone.  Mr.  Heston 
is  one  of  the  very  best  ot  living  cartoonists,  and  his  pictures  have  been  and 
will  be  the  means  of  doing  much  good  in  the  way  of  eliininat-ng  old-timei 
s  'jperstitions. 

To  be  appreciated  the  book  must  be  seen.  Each  alternate  page  is  filled  with 
selections  from  well-known  authors  upon  the  subjects  illustrated  by  the  car- 
toons. These  c  elections  are  printed  in  large  and  clear  type,  and  altogether 
the  book  contains  a  storehouse  of  information,  instruction  and  innocent 
amusement  that  it  would  be  hard  to  find  elsewhere— at  least  hard  to  purchase 
elsewhere  for  the  sum  of  $2.  It  takes  a  pile  of  money  to  get  out  a  single  copy 
of  a  work  like  this,  and  we  sincerely  hope  the  orders  will  be  sent  in  thick  and 
fast,  to  gladden  the  hearts  of  the  publishers  and  to  make  cheerful  and  happy 
the  homes  and  lives  of  the  purchasers. 

H.  0.  Pentecost  in  Twentieth  Century. 

Besides  the  pictures,  there  are  a  great  number  of  pertinent  quotations 
from  great  authors,  living  and  dead,  including  Garibaldi,  Professor  I>raper, 
Eobert  G.  Ingersoll,  President  Dwight,  Prof.  Felix  L.  Oswald,  Guizot,  Lecky, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Macaulay,  Lafayette,  George  Washington,  Walt  Whitman, 
Benjamin  Franklin,  and  many  others  of  equal  fame  and  learning,  embracing 
the  realms  of  history,  science,  poetry,  and  theology.  These  quotations  from 
great  authors  are,  in  themselves,  worth  the  price  of  the  book,  and  are  suffi- 
cient to  furnish  a  liberal  education  on  the  subjects  of  which  they  treat.  The 
pictures  are  in  Watson  Heston's  well-known  'style ;  not  particularly  good  in 
drawing,  but  graphic  and  easy  to  understand.  The  artist  does  not  work  in 
the  best  style  of  art,  but  he  never  fails  to  make  his  meaning  understood,  and 
the  book  is  calculated  to  shock,  startle,  persuade  and  'teach.  It  will  be  a 
pleasure  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  persistent  work  of  THE  TRUTH 
SEEKETI  against  superstition  and  mental  slavery  on  religious  questions,  and  a 
profit  to  those  who  are  prepared  to  read  it  and  calmly  reflect  on  its  facts  and 
teachings. 

J.  D.  Shaw  in  the  Independent  Pulpit. 

This  is  a  wonderful  book  and  will  do  effective  work  in  showing  in«  aosurdity 
and  untruthfulness  of  the  church's  claim  to  be  a  divine  and  beneficent  institu- 
tion, and  in  forecasting  the  abuses  of  union  of  church  and  state. 

Elmina  D.  Slenker. 

It  is  all  and  more  than  I  anticipated — a  volume  calculated  to  impress  forci- 
bly on  the  mind  those  wrongs  it  wars  against,  and  to  imprint  them  indelibly 
iand  ineffaceably  upon  the  memory.  You  can  never  forget  a  single  one  of 
them.  Written  words  may  pass  away,  spoken  words  be  lost,  but  the  pictures 
6tay  forever  and  forever. 

The  book  contains  nearly  4OO  pages,  9  x  12  inches,  bound  in  boards, 

illuminated  covers,  postpaid,  $2. CO  ;  "bound  in  silk  cloth, 

ink  and  gold  side  stamps,  postpaid  $2.5O. 

THE  TRUTH  SEEKER  COMPANY, 
*28  Lafayette  Place,         -       -       -        New  York  City. 


MEN,  WOMEN,  AND  GODS, 

AND    OTHER    LECTURES. 

BY  HELEN  H.  GARDENER. 

WITH   AN    INTBO  DUG  TIO  N 

BY  COL.  R.  G.  INGERSOLL. 

Published  by  THE  TRUTH  SEEKER  COMPANY,  28  Lafayette  PL,  New  York, 
Heavy  paper,  handsomely  bound  in  cloth,  $1.00 ;  paper  covers,  50  cents. 


PRESS   NOTICES. 

[The  Chicago  Times  is  one  of  the  most  wide-awake  and  independent  news- 
papers in  America.  Its  daily  circulation  is  43,000  copies ;  its  Sunday  circulation 
is  but  a  few  hundred  less  than  50,000.  The  daily  edition  is  never  less  than  ten 
pages,  while  its  Sunday  edition  often  reaches  twenty.  Helen  H.  Gardener  may 
therefore  congratulate  herself  that  her  book  has  induced  so  widely  read  a 
journal  to  give  its  world  an  opinion  so  damaging  to  the  claims  of  Christianity 
as  the  following  notice  of  "Men,  Women,  and  Gods  :"1 

"  Men,  Women,  and  Gods,  and  Other  Lectures,"  by  Helen  H.  Gardener,  is  a 
duodecimo  volume  of  about  186  pages,  containing  three  lectures  with  an 
appendix,  setting  forth  some  of  the  authorities  from  which  the  lecturer  draws 
some  of  her  material. 

The  first  lecture  gives  the  title  to  the  book,  the  second  is  on  "  Vicarious 
Atonement,"  and  the  third  on  "  Historical  Facts  and  Theological  Fictions." 

All  are  keen,  vigorous,  and  acrid  attacks  on  the  Christian  church  forms  of 
theology.  They  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  attacks  on  religion  or  religious  feel- 
ing, since  the  flower  of  that  plant  is  charity  of  thought  and  action,  and  in  this 
Miss  Gardener  sees  the  highest  end  of  man's  emotional  side,  as  in  absolute; 
freedom  of  investigation  and  opinion  she  sees  the  highest  end  of  his  intellectual! 
side.  Her  leading  purpose  seems  to  be  to  show  that  women,  of  all  persons, 
should  least  support  the  Bible  and  the  churches  which  hold  it  in  reverence. 

The  first  lecture  is  a  surprisingly  bitter  and  scathing  denunciation  of  the 
Old  Testament  as  the  sum  of  all  cruelty  and  brutality  toward  women?  and  she 
makes  up  a  startlingly  strong  case  from  the  pages  of  the  book  itself.  If  any  one 
does  not  think  the  case  can  oe  made  strong  let  him  read  carefully  this  book  and 
also  the  thirty-first  chapter  of  **  Numbers." 

The  second  lecture  arraigns  vicarious  atonement  as  an  inexcusable  injustice 
in  itself,  weakening  and  corrupting  in  its  influence,  like  indiscriminate  alms- 
giving, and.  points  out  that  it  is  not  peculiar  to  Christianity,  but  is  found  in 
Borne  form  in  every  religious  system  known  in  history. 


scture,  where  ner  purpose  is  to  show  that  our  civilisation  is  in  no  sense  based 
upon  Christianity,  and  that  the  Christian  religion  has  especially  not  contrib- 
uted to  the  elevation  of  woman  in  any  respect.  Here  she  drops  largely  her 
jlippancy  of  style  and  settles  down  to  earnest  work. 

Civilization  she  holds  to  be  chiefly  the  creature  of  environment,  the  basia  of 
Which,  in  this  world,  is  in  climate  and  soil.  In  support  of  Ver  view  of  the  posi- 
tion of  woman  she  quotes  largely  from  Sir  Henry  Maine,  showing  among  other 
things  that  the  position  of  woman  in  Koman  law  and  usage,  before  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity,  was  in  advance  of  what  it  is  even  now  in  some  respects, 
and  that  the  tendency  of  the  canon  (church)  law  was  invariably  to  force  her 
back  into  the  degradation  from  which  she  had  been  rescued  by  a  long  and! 
painful  evolution. 

In  this  lecture,  too,  she  answers  the  questions  as  to  what  she  would  substi-l 
tute  for  the  sanctions  of  Christianity,  and  she  takes  considerable  pains  tol 
ehow,  what  one  would  think  need  scarcely  be  insisted  upon  in  our  day,  that  the! 
morals  of  civilization— morals  in  general,  indeed— 9-re  not  at  all  based  in  orj 
dependent  upon  religion,  certainly  not  on  Christianity;  since  the  wr-called| 
''golden  rule,"  the  highest  principle  of  morality,  antedates 
thousand  years. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immedi  ill. 

ONLY-  I  Teh  Ne,  642-3405 


g       MAY  2  8  1968  06 


General  Library     m 
University  of  California 
Berkeley 


